Saving the Seven (next generation) and another long fall
by ChrysSelene
Summary: The Jackson siblings come home from school to find that their father has gone missing. Annabeth takes them all back to camp for the summer to find him and she also goes missing, along with the rest of the seven. The siblings and their cousins sneak out of camp on an adventure to find their parents and hopefully, stop their kidnappers before it's too late, but something goes wrong.
1. Last day of school

Intro

Only five minutes left. Five minutes, then school is out and I can get back to Camp. I've been going to Camp Half-Blood practically my entire life. My siblings and I practically grew up at Camp. We're a pretty powerful family so we live close and I often spent my weekends training at Camp. My dad is a camp counselor and basically run it (Although he'd never admit it!) Usually we head up to Camp with our parents at the end of the summer, but Dad left a couple of days ago so he could help Chiron set up for the summer.

I should probably introduce myself now, shouldn't I? Ok then, I'm Jase Valdez Jackson and I'm 16 years old. I've got a little brother, Oscar Underwood Jackson, who's almost a year old, as well as two sisters. My youngest sister is 5 years old, her name is Adora Thalia Jackson. Casey Zoe Jackson is my other sister, she's 13. As you can tell, I'm the oldest of the siblings. I'm also the oldest of all my cousins except Rose (Grover and Juniper's daughter) who's turning 21 this year.

Most kids go to Camp when they're 12, but the Jackson family was one of the big exceptions. The name Jackson was a pretty powerful name in the demigod world, as you'd probably guess. Camp Half-Blood has been our second home since we were born.

 _*BRIIINNGGG*_

The bell finally rang, signifying that school had finally ended. Summer had finally begun. I grabbed my bag from under my seat and bolted out the door, mumbling feeble apologies as I went. I glanced at my watch and ran faster. Oscar's daycare was getting out in three minutes and thankfully Adora's preschool was in the same building.

As soon as I got out the front doors, I bolted. My backpack pounded against my back as I ran, driving me nuts. There wasn't much in my bag, just a couple books and a dagger and some medical supplies and ambrosia and nectar. Ok, maybe I had a little too much in my bag. I cursed the thousand page architecture thesaurus is my backpack and ran a little faster, not wanting to be late.

Finally, I got to the day-care. The pre-school was about three miles from my school, and I made it in a little over nine minutes. I was really getting out of shape. I took a deep breath to recover from the run and opened the door to the daycare and preschool.

"Jasey!" I laughed as a jubilant mop of blonde curls attacked my legs. She was waiting outside the door for me. Adora was the most adorable little girl I'd ever seen. My aunt Thalia said she looked exactly like my mom had when she was younger.

"Hey Dora, how was the last day of school?" I asked. She giggled into my pant sleeve. Her bright gray eyes glimmered as she laughed and I couldn't help but smile

"Fun!" She answered, still giggling. I'd never met somebody who laughed as much as she did. I smiled and unattached her from my legs, opting to hold her small hand instead. She skipped alongside me as I made my way to the daycare. I opened the door, only to be greeted with the shrill cry of upset babies. Although I had three younger siblings, the sound still saddened me. I was a sucker for siblings, as you can probably see.

"Hello, Mr. Jackson!" The cheerful daycare worker greeted me from her spot behind the reception desk. I glanced wistfully at the yoga ball she sat on, longing to sit down for a couple minutes.

"Hi, Ms. Longfellow." I smiled, giving her a small nod before taking the papers needed to sign Oscar out. I quickly filled out the paper, whizzing through it. The paper was done in seconds, thankfully, so Adora hadn't yet begun to complain about how bored she ADHD was like Dad's and she had a hard time staying still for more than three minutes at a time. Once I had handed the secretary back her pen and slid the form across the table, I took my little sister's hand and walked back to where the kids were.

In the playroom, I could see one of the workers wrangling to get Oscar's pajamas changed. I recognised the tuft of black hair as he cried and screamed. Well, somebody's cranky. The daycare lady saw us coming and tilted her head curiously. She must be new. I knew everybody else who worked here.

"Here, I got it." I smiled. She was about to reply, nervously glancing at a nearby worker.

"Jase, you have to in-tro-duce yourself," Adora said, giving me her biggest toothy grin. She only had a few teeth in, so her smile was absolutely adorable. She looked at me expectantly, proud of her use of a bigger word.

"Great vocabulary Dora! And yes, I suppose you're right." I turned to the lady, sticking out my free hand. "Sorry, I'm Jase Jackson, that's my little brother, Oscar." The worker calmed now that she knew I wasn't some freak. Well, I still was a freak but she didn't have to know about my ancestry. She stepped out of the way, letting me get to my little brother.

"I'm so sorry! I'm new here; still, haven't figured the whole thing out," she said.

I shrugged it off. "No problem, have a good day!" I said as she turned to leave. She smiled and offered a small wave. I approached the changing table and ticked Oscar's sides, smiling as he erupted into laughter. He opened his eyes, mirroring mine and Dad's. "Hey, Osi! How are you doing little buddy?" He giggled, chewing on the small teething toy in his hands. I quickly finished putting on his day clothes, sticking the rest of his stuff in my bag. I picked up the small bundle and cradled him in my right arm and still held Adora in my other hand. I lead them to the small cubbies in the corner of the room and grabbed Oscar's stroller from his cubby. I took it out through the back door and set up the stroller, putting Oscar in after giving him a small kiss on the forehead. He gurgled on his teething toy, and I buckled him in. He was just too cute for me.

"How was school Jase?" Adora asked, slowly wording her sentence. I sighed, thinking of the hell mortals call school. Don't get me wrong, I loved learning, but I was already years ahead of my grade and I didn't have many friends at school. All my friends were at the Camps.

"It was pretty good. Here, I got something for you." I said, taking a small baggie from my pocket. She squealed at the sight of the small gummy candies and jumped up and down like a crazed fangirl. I smiled and handed her the , I completely spoiled my siblings, you don't have to remind me. Dad told me about how when our grandma Sally used to bring candy home from her work and it had given me the idea. Adora skipped two blocks on the way to the Junior High but gave up when we got to the third block.

"Jase, I'm tired." She whined, pulling out her signature puppy dog eyes. Mom said she got the look from my dad. It was irresistible. I slowed to a stop and bent down.

"Hop on kiddo." She happily leaped onto my back, suddenly full of energy. She hummed happily, thinking she'd fooled me. I silently shook my head. Oh, the simplicity of being a little kid. The rush of pubescent middle schoolers overcame me as we arrived at Casey's school. I recognized her chaotic head of shoulder length black hair under a large oak in the front yard. Her gray eyes were focused on a book similar to the one I had in my bag. She had the smarts of our mom but still was somehow as clueless as my dad. For example, she could be thinking she was doing her homework and accidently solve one of the millennium prize problems (unsolvable math problems) and not even realize it.

"Found her!" Adora yelled in my ear. I winced at the sudden loud noise and walked over, making sure Casey could see me.

"Hey, Cas! Over here!"

Her head whipped up from her book and she started to laugh. That's never a good sign. She snatched up her stuff and jogged over to us, still laughing.

"What? What's so funny?"

She pointed at my head through her hysteria. I lifted my hand to my messy blonde curls and found that from her perch, Adora had messed up my hair more than it already was. "Ah, man! It actually looked halfway decent today too!"

Adora giggled and Casey shook her head, "Great job, nerd."

"Yea, yea. Take the stroller will you, Brainiac?"

She smiled and took the stroller from me and we finally began heading towards home. "Hey Cas, here." I tossed her a bag similar to the one I had given Adora. She smiled and opened the bag. Did I mention that she also got Dad's appetite?

"Thanks, Jase!"

When we got home, I could see Mom's car in the driveway, signifying that she had gotten home early to go to Camp. I felt an excited anticipation in my chest. Although my favorite place in the world was a certain cafe in New Rome, Camp Half-Blood came in a close second.

"Hey, Mom! We're home!" Casey called after unlocking the door with her house key. Mom didn't answer, which I found a little strange. Usually, if Mom was home in time she would be waiting on the front porch with lemonade and a plate of sandwiches. I could hear her in the kitchen and made my way there with Oscar while Casey packed up the stroller. I got to the kitchen and waited for my mom. I could see her on the phone, which was a rare occurrence. We rarely used phones so I knew it had to be an emergency.

"What do you mean you can't find him? Get him on the phone _now_!" I could hear the edge of anxiety in her voice and adjusted Oscar in my arms. My mother, being the legendary Annabeth Chase Jackson, was a very powerful person, so whoever she was talking to must be pissing themselves right now. Trust me when I say she can be pretty freaking scary when she wants to be. I wanted to ask her what was wrong but figured now was probably a bad time.

"Jase? What's up?" Casey whispered, coming up behind me.

"I'm not sure, but you might want to take Adora in her room to play or something, I don't think it's anything good." She nodded in understanding, and brought Adora to her room, saying something about a new book, to which the look of disgust on Adora's face was evident. I smirked, then turned my attention back to my mom. She sighed, putting a hand worriedly to her head and shoving her hair out of the way.

"Fine. Call me _as soon_ as you find him. We're on our way as soon as the kids get home." She hung up the phone.

"Hey Mom, what's going on?" She turned quickly, her blonde hair flying as she did.

"Jase! You scared me!"

That's when I really started to was nearly impossible to scare my mom.

"Sorry, it's just," she didn't finish her sentence. A noticed a tear sliding down her cheek. Moving Oscar to one arm, I quickly wrapped the other around her in a hug. "I can't go through this again," she whispered. Oscar began to wine so I bumped him up and down on my hip. Mom was always in control. She was the strongest and most powerful woman I'd ever met. So if she was breaking down like this, then I knew something was seriously wrong.

What did she mean _again_? I thought about it for a moment as Mom calmed down. Then it clicked.

"It's about Dad isn't it?" I hoped on everything that I was wrong.

She took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm sorry Jase, I just got a call from Chiron." She said softly "Your father is missing, again."

 _(Hi! Thank you so much for reading! I have another book out (Percy Jackson and the Avengers if you wanna read more PJ. I update both books daily so come back! Cheers!)_


	2. The Grace kids

I looked down, suddenly finding I let out a deep breath, sighing calm myself down. I tried to stay calm but with my mother freaking out it was hard for me not to. She slowly regained composure and shakily smiled. I knew she was forcing it.

"It's going to be ok Mom, he always turns up somehow," I said.

She chuckled sadly. "I know he does. Thank you Jase, for always being so strong."

I gained an interest in my feet. "Thanks, Mom."

She smiled, curving her hand around my cheek. "You're getting so big, Jase," She said quietly. It was silent for a moment then she asked, "Could you get Oscar and his stuff ready?"

"Of course. I love you, Mom."

"Love you too Jase." She offered a quick hug, then rushed to Casey's room to get my sisters and explain to Casey what was going on. I grabbed Oscar's extra diaper bag, which was always parked by the door in case we needed to leave in a hurry. I took it out to the car and carefully opened the van door. I put Oscar's bag under his seat and buckled him in. Oscar began to cry, so I rocked the seat back and forth and gave him his pacifier. Teething was not a fun process.

Soon, Casey opened the door with Adora in one hand and two duffel bags in the other. She held up the bags when she got in the backseat.

"I grabbed yours too, you seemed a little busy." She smirked and stuffed the dark green bag under my seat. She was better than me at hiding her stress.

"Styx! I completely forgot about my stuff! Thanks, Cas."

...

Car rides in the Jackson van were never quiet. There were two small kids, and everybody in the car was ADHD. Adora got bored about five minutes into the ride, making me glad we only lived 15 minutes away from Camp.

"Are we going to see Daddy at Camp?" Adora's question created complete silence in the car. Oscar got back to chewing on his pacifier. Mom opened her mouth to speak but hesitated in search for something to say.

"I don't know, you just have to be patient sis'," I answered. Mom smiled in relief and glanced back at me in gratitude. We pulled up to the road outside Camp and Mom nearly ripped the door open as soon as the van was stopped. She waited as we got out of the car, looking as if she might explode. I knew she was only trying to be calm for us.

"Mom, we got it, we'll meet you there." Casey motioned for her to go, knowing that she would go insane if she didn't get up there soon. Mom kissed me quickly on the cheek and gave the rest of our clan a quick hug before rushing up the hill. Casey and I got the little kids out of the car and grabbed the rest of the stuff. I grabbed Oscar and Casey rushed up the hill after Adora, leaving me at the bottom. I sighed, grabbed the two bags, made sure Oscar was secure in my arms and bolted up after them. I passed Peleus and patted him on the head. I could hear him rumble beneath me but knew he wasn't trying to warn me off. I had been hanging out with that dragon since I was Oscar's age and Peleus actually liked me, so I wasn't worried about it. I turned around when I heard Casey yelling. Casey got her hype from Mom, so I feared for whoever she was yelling at. I ran towards her and when I got there, it looked like Casey was about to throw punches. Between her and the border was a new demigod, probably doing guard duty.

"Cas? What's with all the yelling?" I called as I approached her. She turned to me, and I raised my eyebrows. Her red face slowly went back to normal.

"He won't let me through the border!" she fumed. The demigod looked like he was about to crap himself. We didn't use to have security like this on the borders but there are still rogue demigods that try to get into Camp to cause trouble.

"Calm down Casey, he's just doing his job," I said. She closed her eyes and I put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. I turned to the demigod. He had light blonde hair and blue eyes and the bow and arrows slung across his back made it obvious that he was the son of Apollo. "I'm Jase Jackson, nice to meet you. This is my sister Casey. She's sorry about all the yelling, and that's Adora over there, and this here is Oscar," I introduced the small group. His eyes widened into saucers.

"Ja-Jackson?"

I smiled, "You got it. Now we have to go, nice to meet you Sunny." I walked right past him, and he let me. He stared at us in disbelief. Casey smirked in satisfaction. I quickly ran to the big house, with my siblings on my heels.

"Chiron!" Adora yelled, causing the centaur to turn around and walk down the steps to greet us.

"Children, how nice to see you," he said. I could see the stress in his eyes and I knew it was about my dad. A knot built up in my throat but I forced it down. I couldn't think about it.

"Hey Chiron, any news?" I asked, hoping for the best. He bent his head in what I recognized as shame. I couldn't imagine the guilt Chiron felt every time another demigod went missing or was killed. He'd been here for so long, I just couldn't understand how he managed it.

"I am sorry, child. Not yet."

I sighed, closing my eyes. Casey came up behind me and slung her arm through mine.

"It's ok Jase. Mom can figure this out, and we can help. We have the Romans to help us too. This isn't going to be last time," she reassured. I nodded. Suddenly, the door of the big house burst open and Jonathan Grace pulled to a stop behind me, his twin sister Katrina, or Kat as we called her, crashing into him. The pair didn't look a lot like their parents. Johnathan's hair was colored like his mom's but he didn't keep it cut choppy and uneven. His hair was neatly trimmed like Jason's. He and Kat both had slightly lighter skin tone than their mom. Jonathan had his Dad's eyes, while Kat's eyes mirrored her Piper's. Kat had short blonde hair that reached her chin in a bob. They both seemed to inherit their Grandmother's genes when it came to looks.

"Guys!" Jonathan yelled, crowding us all into a big family hug. His eyes were wide and the worry I saw made him look a lot younger than thirteen

"Hey Jonathan, Kat. Any news?" Casey greeted them with a hug

Kat leaned over her brother's shoulder to see us as she spoke. "It's Mom and Dad! They're gone!" My mouth gaped open. "Just like Uncle Percy!" she quickly added. My brain went haywire, trying to find the connection.

Then I figured it out. Of course! It was so obvious! I quickly handed Oscar to Chiron.

"Kat, IM the Zhangs, Jonathan, help Chiron watch Adora and Osi, please. Casey, come with me. We need to get Mom."

Chiron nodded. I grabbed Casey's hand and bolted for the Poseidon cabin. Usually, we stayed in the Poseidon cabin because we liked having the cabin to ourselves, and I knew that's where Mom would go. I quickly pushed the door open using my shoulder and froze at the sight in front of me. The cabin was a mess, even more so than usual. It looked like Uncle Jason had come through here with anger issues and his power of the winds. Everything was broken and on the ground, but that's not what bothered me. What bothered me was the large circular scorch mark on the floor and the blood pooled around it. I heard a gasp behind me.

"Jase?"

I pushed her back."Casey, get back."

"Jase..."

"Casey! Get back to the big house!" I practically steamrolled her out the door, wrenching it closed behind me. My cousins met me halfway. Casey was near tears and I was doing all I could to hold myself together at this point.

Mom was gone.

 _(Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed! I also am working on another book, Percy Jackson and the Avengers, so check that out if it sounds like something you'd like? I update daily on both books, so come back tomorrow if you want more! :) )_


	3. Now that we're all here

"What happened?" Jonathan asked. Kat ran to comfort my sister, who enveloped her in a hug. I wrapped one arm around her and planted a kiss on the top of her head.

"Mom's gone. There are scorch marks and blood in the cabin. Help Cas, I'm talking to Chiron," I tried to keep my voice from shaking. I pulled Casey quickly to my side, before releasing her and running towards the big house. When I got there I was greeted by Oscar's screaming. He was crying in Chiron's awkward arms. For how old he was, Chiron really wasn't the best with babies. I quickly took my little brother from the centaur's arms and cradled him against my chest, clutching him protectively. John and Adora ran towards me and my little sister hugged my legs. I rested one hand on her head and smoothed her hair. Chiron looked at me, silently asking for answers.

"What has happened?" He asked. I shook my head sadly.

"She's gone," I whispered, trying not to alert my sister. Chiron closed his eyes for just a moment but it was long enough for me to notice his concern. He quickly composed himself back into the orderly teacher we knew so well.

"We contacted the others, it seems that every member of the Prophecy of Seven has been taken," he didn't sounds very hopeful for a happy ending.

I was nearly overcome by the news. I tried to think but it was becoming hard. I was going insane with worry and it hadn't been a full minute since Mom had been captured. I knew that my dad was missing but it never really began to sink in until we'd lost mom. I felt empty without my parents, aunts, uncles, and their best friends.

Suddenly, a hand was placed on my shoulder. Casey wrapped her arms under Oscar, tucking them around my torso. My parents were gone, the people who I'd grown up with my entire life, where missing. But my siblings were still here, they were safe. I looked down at the bobbing heads of hair beneath me. Casey, with messy black hair like my father, and startling gray eyes like my mother. Adora, the carbon copy of my mother, with the parallel personality of my dad. Oscar, curly black hair and eyes just like mine, mirroring our father's sea green ones. My parents were out there somewhere, and we were going to find them. But for now, we were going to be ok.

Of course, Chiron had to ruin the moment.

"Children, I need you all to stay here and wait for the Zhang family. A quest will be released tomorrow at the campfire. Until then, I ask of you only to stay here, and _please_ stay out of trouble." he spoke in his " _trainer of the hero's_ " voice. I nodded. He left the room and I herded the group upstairs. I stared at the clock on the wall; it wasn't even 6 pm yet.

I cleared off one of the beds and laid Oscar down, hoping he'd take another nap. Thankfully, Oscar loved his sleep as much as Dad did, so he usually napped long and well. Thinking about Dad caused my heart to pain. My dad is like a superhero. Well, for me anyway. He isn't much help with homework or the academic part of school, but when I need help pranking my school bully or faking sick so I can take a break from all the stress and get ice cream, my dad is always there. He protected us from everything, teachers and monsters alike. I didn't know what to do without my parents. To me, they were the pinnacle of what I wanted to get out of my life. They were happy and always sweet to each other, somehow managed to give time to each of us kids, and trained us for the Greek world while somehow keeping our lives as normal as possible. On the weekends I could be fighting hellhounds and drinking from magical goblets, and the next day I'd be asking my mom for help studying for my Spanish quiz. Somehow, my secret life made failing an algebra test a lot less stressful. When you knew your entire life could be thrown into chaos because one of the gods is throwing a hissy fit or lost their sock or something it's kind of hard to freak out over a bad grade. It helps me realize that high school is not the biggest thing in life. Like, at all. Of course, I still got good grades and did well in school, but getting straight A's wasn't my biggest worry in life.

Even with four kids, jobs, _and_ multiple mythological worlds to deal with, my parents were still the most powerful and helpful people I'd ever met. I didn't want to imagine where my life would be if I didn't have them. I refused to.

Oscar hadn't been down for ten minutes when the door burst open and a bulky Chinese Canadian panda baby boy nearly pulled the door off its hinges. Max Zhang stood before us, tears flowing softly from his golden colored eyes. The fourteen-year-old walked slowly into the room and right into one of his cousins' open arms. Adora clung to the massive 14-year-old as he cried. I could tell he'd been trying _not_ to cry, but it's hard in a situation like this. He's an only child so he probably didn't have anybody to lean on when his parents went missing. The Zhangs live in Rhode Island, where Frank is going to college. They are having a house built for them in New Rome but until its construction is complete, they're living outside the camps. I wondered how Max got here but I didn't want to ask. He was going through enough as it was.

Max was the only child of Frank and Hazel Zhang and he was the biggest momma's boy that you'd ever meet. Not that it was a bad thing, of course. It was just a part of who he was. Max was really close with his parents. I swear he must be part teddy bear. He was a giant sweetheart, even though he was the toughest looking of the cousins. He was also my best friend, even though we were nearly polar opposites.

"It's ok Max, we're going to get them back," I said, trying to comfort the sobbing mess of a boy on the bed next to me.

"How? We don't know what we're doing! How are we going to get them back? We don't even know what took them! It's not like we have any nice happy monsters to help us!" Max protested. I sighed and tried not to think about how right he was.

Wait, Max was onto something. We needed somebody who would be able to recognize the mess left behind by whatever took our parents. Not necessarily a monster, but somebody who spent their time with creatures of different shapes and sizes. We needed somebody we know we can trust, but someone who could also help us. Not just somebody like Chiron who has seen these creatures, but maybe someone who's actually fought them, or hugged them to bits. The general of the Cyclops army would do nicely.

"Has anybody talked to Tyson lately?"

 _(Hey guys! Ok sorry for the late update but I've had a rough couple of days. I got really really sick and was admitted to the hospital, so I wasn't able to update. Good news though, I'm going to be stuck at home for a very long time so I'll have a lot of time to update. Thanks!)_


	4. Uncle Tyson's discovery

Apparently, Chiron had already talked to Tyson. And Tyson has spent the past three hours balling his eyes out in our grandfather's kingdom. It took a bit of persuasion, but we managed to convince our Uncle to come and help us out. By we, I mean Jonathan. Of course, Tyson wanted to help, but it still took some work to convince him that he actually could help.

We knew exactly when he arrived; we could hear him all the way across Camp.

"FAMILY!" He yelled, somehow managing to dogpile every single one of us into a giant bear hug.

"Hey Uncle Ty, think you could help us out? We kinda have a situation..." I spoke. Tyson turned to me, smiling all the way.

"Of course I help! What is problem?" he asked, his head tilting slightly to the side. I still didn't understand how the big guy could smile. He was a mess every time Dad left to go on a quest, let alone got kidnapped. Is it bad that I can actually say that my father's been kidnapped multiple times in his life? Mostly by gods?

"It's about the current, situation," Kat slowly worded. Tyson's smile dropped and his bottom lip began to quiver. "It's ok, we're getting them back. And we need your help," she continued. I nodded along, although I had no actual input for the conversation.

"If you're ok with it," Jonathan started, "we'd like you to look at Percy's cabin, the place that Annabeth got taken."

I didn't want to go back to that cabin but Jonathan was right. We had no leads besides the cabin and whatever was in it. All the seven were gone or dead and we didn't know anything. Tyson nodded slowly and wiped away his tears. Casey took my hand before leading us to the cabin. Neither of us wanted to go back there. We weren't sure whose blood was on the floor but the only plausible explanation was that it belonged to my mother. I knew it wasn't a lot of blood, but it still meant that she'd been hurt. And if she'd gotten hurt while she was taken, there was a good chance the rest of my family was too. And with how powerful my dad was, it was unlikely he went down easy. I felt a sob climbing its way up my throat. There was still so many more problems, even if Tyson did find something. I hoped Chiron had already told my grandmother because I couldn't bare the thought of talking to her without crying. And what about Aunt Thalia? And all the others? Who had told them, and were they ok? The whole situation was a mess. I'm sure when Rachel found out, she'd be tearing through Camp's borders with her blue plastic hairbrush.

My family had a lot of enemies, but who could have gotten through both Camp's defenses and taken the most powerful demigods in history? Obviously, it was somebody who had a grudge on all of the Seven. That was still a big list. Through their quest to the doors of death, they pissed off a lot of people. Heck, even Hercules probably had a vendetta against us.

"Oh no, oh no this is not good at all," Tyson said. His breaths became long and shaky and he began to cry again. Well, that's a _great_ sign! I hope you caught my sarcasm there.

"What?" Casey urged, growing impatient. I thought it was a little impolite for her to be so pushy while Tyson was obviously upset, but I was too curious myself to say anything.

"It Tartarus!" Tyson yelled. My heart stopped.

"Like, the actual Tartarus?!" Oh, gods please say that's not true. I'd heard enough stories to properally horrify me.

Tyson shook his head wildly and I silently thanked every god I could name.

"No, no no no. There were other things down there, things that didn't get out when brother and Annabeth and the others closed the doors,"

Hold up a minute here. How was that possible? Like Tyson said, those monsters were still all stuck in Tartarus. So how would they be able to kidnap our parents? I've heard of powerful entities (like Gaea, for example) splitting their entities so part of their power could be in one place while they were actually somewhere else, but never to this extent. And nothing in Tartarus besides Tartarus itself was powerful enough to do this while having their power split. That could basically only mean one thing. Tartarus has got a leak. Not to the extent of the doors hopefully, but there's a crack somewhere and something big got out. And that something was out for revenge.

Casey held onto the trembling hand of Adora, who was just beginning to understand what was going on. Max looked terrified and was clinging to Kat, who had her arm comfortingly on Jonathan's shoulder.

"Will we get Percy and Annabeth back?" Tyson asked. His bottom lip began to quiver.

"Of course, we will," I said, although personally I was really just trying to convince myself. Chiron chose that moment to interrupt.

"Once we speak to an oracle and if she releases a prophecy for the quest, then we can issue a quest. I would think it wise to disclude you all from his quest, as we have already lost enough. You will be safest here at Camp."

I glanced back at the seven kids behind me. I could already tell that this was going to be a problem. There was no way we wouldn't be going after them.


	5. McShizzle is in da house

The entire world of Greek Mythology was in Chaos. Word had traveled to every naiad, every Nymph, every satyr, and every demigod. News had traveled through the Greeks, it traveled through the Romans, and somehow our uncle Magnus found out so now the Norse world is on the lookout. Grover was in hysterics while he searched, somehow managing to get the rest of the coven to spread the message even further. We were told to stay in Camp unless things exceeded to drastic measures, but in my opinion they already _had_ reached "drastic measures." But whatever. Chiron told us to stay put so that's what we were going to do. HA funny joke.

Yeah, I knew that wasn't going to work. What can I say? I'm still my dad's kid. Usually, I take after my mom. I got my fatal flaw of loyalty from my dad, but usually I'm like mom. I love to read, I want to be an architect, and I am generally a "rule follower." Notice the quotation marks. People assume that Mom always followed the rules, which is really not true. A number of times she snuck out of Camp or broke the rules while she and Dad were still out doing quests is almost at the same amount as my dad. Athena children don't necessarily follow the rules, they're just really good at breaking them.

Instead of pointing this out, I nodded to Chiron and guided my group back to the big house. Nobody said a word until we had locked ourselves into one of the rooms and made sure nobody was listening.

"You're really not going to let us go?! This isn't even a question, we're going!" Casey's face was once again red in frustration. The others all looked to me for answers. I set Oscar back onto the bed and sighed.

"No, of course not. But I'm not saying that in front of Chiron. He doesn't want us to leave. Something tells me that it doesn't matter how many people are out there looking, we need to get out there, into the world, and find them. There's a lot of us, and we're powerful. Our family names spike fear into every monster in our path and our bloodlines combine some of the most powerful gods. We're legacies that have never existed before! If we do this, together, then whoever took our parents don't stand a chance," I said. I wasn't completely sure I knew or believed what I was saying but it seemed to work. They all nodded and mumbled their agreement. Casey took a large sheet of graph paper out from under the bed. How did she just happen to have graph paper under the bed?

"We may not have a ping-pong table, but this will do just fine." She spread the paper out on the floor. Adora ran to help, getting markers from her bag and handing them to Casey. She looked up to the rest of us for a plan. What plan? We didn't have a plan! Ok, we need to start with the obvious: transportation.

"Did the Hephaestus kids ever finish rebuilding the Argo ll?" I asked. Jonathan shook his head.

"No, they said it was too depressing," he said, trailing off. None of got to meet Leo, he was killed by Gaia during the final battle. The Argo had been his ship. Many other demigods had helped build it but nobody could fix it quite like Leo had. Plus, the bronze dragon head had disappeared with Leo.

I nodded. "Ok, do you think we have enough pegasi to transport us all?"

Again, I was met with the others slowly shaking their heads. We shot ideas back and forth all night but nobody could think of a way to transport us _anywhere_. Ok so we hadn't even started and we were already stuck.

As we planned, I fed Oscar dinner and found some food downstairs for Adora. We stayed up late trying to make a plan. We didn't have any way to get anywhere useful. Eventually, we went to sleep. We'd figure it out in the morning.

(Time skip)

I woke up to screams. They weren't screams of terror, but screams nevertheless. I sat upright and groggily looked around. I shook the older kids awake, being careful to let Adora and Oscar sleep. There was a loud explosion, which ended up waking them up anyway.

"Jase?" Adora asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning, "What's happening?"

I quickly wrapped Oscar in my sweatshirt and grabbed her hand. I didn't want to leave them alone so I guess I was taking them with me.

"I don't know."

The others were wide awake by now but by some miracle (AKA, my dad's genetics) Oscar remained sleeping. Adora took my sword from its sheath and held it at the ready. The others got their weapons and we trailed soundlessly outside. Everybody was armed and pointing their weapons toward the mushroom cloud of smoke coming from the field next to the big house. I let go of Adora's hand and took my sword from her. She was too small to fight with it so I handed her a dagger that I had hidden in my waistband instead. I didn't want Adora to be fighting but we didn't really have a choice. She was the daughter of Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase and we wouldn't always be there to protect her.

"Whoo hoo! That was fun!" A voice came from within the cloud of smoke and dust. I didn't recognize the latino accent and neither did the rest of us. A young man emerged, waving smoke from his eyes. He wasn't very tall, about 5'8. He had darker skin and lots of thick curly hair. His smile was mischievous and warm. His calloused hands and tool belt were an easy giveaway of his heritage. Son of Hephaestus. He looked to be about our parents age But why had I never seen him before?

"Who are you?" He asked me. The rest of the campers had stepped behind me, so I took the liberty of speaking. First, I tried to think of what to say. His hands fumbled nervously and he pulled a screwdriver from his tool belt. Wait, that screwdriver would _not_ be able to fit in that belt... Oh obviously! I know who this is. But how's that possible?

"Who's asking?" I challenged.

He smiled again. "Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus, supreme commander of the Ago ll and bad boy supreme!" He yelled, throwing his arms into the air and lighting his hair on fire. My eyes widened and I heard gasps coming from all around me. I grinned slightly, then used my powers to take water from a nearby bucket and douse his head. His face contorted in confusion and water dripped from the hair in his eyes. I stepped forward and stuck out my hand.

"I'm Jase Jackson. These are my siblings, Oscar, Adora, and Casey. Over there are my cousins Kat and Jonathan Grace along with Max Zang." I introduced. Everybody waved when I said their name, except for Oscar who was fast asleep. Leo's eyes were wide in shock. Max looked like he was about to pass out.

"Jackson, Zhang and Grace? As in _Percy_ Jackson, _Frank_ Zhang, and _Jason_ Grace?" he asked, mystified. If not for the situation, I would have laughed at the expression on his face.

I nodded. "We're the kids of Percy and Annabeth Jackson, Jason and Piper Grace, and Frank and Hazel Zhang," I said. Leo shook his head quickly as if he didn't believe it.

"Holy Hades I've missed a lot" He muttered. He looked back up to us.

"I went back to Ogygia and saved Calypso; she's in California right now. I didn't realize..."

"Eighteen years," I told him. His eyes looked like they might bulge from their sockets.

"What's going on?" Chiron parted the crowd. He saw Leo and gasped. "Leo Valdez, I never thought..." he gave Leo a quick hug but it looked like the centaur wanted to slap him. Same. The crowd parted as a very angry demigod stepped forward.

"Valdez I am going to _murder_ you!" My godfather yelled.

Nico di Angelo looked murderous. He stomped through the crowd of people, who all parted in fear, and straight up to the whimpering form of Leo Valdez. Then Nico slapped him. Hard.

"Do you know how worried the camp was? We had your funeral! Hazel was crying for weeks!" he yelled. Guilt flashed across Leo's face. I looked down to Adora and nodded. She looked to Nico, then bolted towards the cabins. She knew what to do.

"You weren't in the underworld, you weren't alive, we didn't know what to think! We physically went into Hades' realm and searched for you! You couldn't send one Iris message? Or even a phone call?" His outburst caused the entire crowd to go silent. Nico opened his mouth to start screaming again but Adora had gotten back, with an old camp counselor in tow.

"You know, if you murder Leo, even I might not be able to patch him up." Will smiled and let his hand drop to Nico's shoulder. As soon as his hand made contact, Nico calmed.

"I still want to punch him," Nico whispered. Will tilted his head in thought, then nodded.

"I'll give you that."

Nico smiled, which scared Leo even more, then punched him in the stomach. I chuckled and smiled at my godfathers. Nico turned to us with a look of sympathy.

"Jase, I'm sorry. We came as soon as we heard," he said. Will nodded in agreement and hugged me. He held his arms out and I gladly handed Oscar over. Leo watched the exchange.

"So it's true?" he asked. "The rest of the Seven have been taken?" I looked down to my feet and nodded. Leo, even if just for a moment, went silent. "How can I help?"

Chiron shook his head. "I'm afraid there's nothing you can do, my boy. We have our entire world searching and if their captors know you to be alive then you as well are in danger. You must to stay here, where it's safe" he said. I thought back to how Mom had been taken. She was in Camp. She was in Dad's cabin when she was taken. Was Camp Half-Blood really safe? Piper and Jason were taken from Camp Jupiter. If Mom could be taken from here, then would anywhere be safe for Leo? I glanced at Casey and the look on her face told me that she was thinking the exact same thing.

"Hey Leo, why don't you come back to the big house with us? We'll catch you up on what's happened while you've been gone." I offered, motioning towards the blue mansion behind me. Leo glanced at Nico, who glared at him in turn, and nodded eagerly.

"We'll watch Oscar," Will said. Nico was too busy tickling the baby's side and making faces to notice.

I smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

Leo stared at Nico in interest, not believing that this was the same gloomy son of Hades he's known all those years ago. Nico had changed a lot. He was happy now. He and Will had settled down and were thinking about adopting. (Adora couldn't wait to have another kid around,) Dad says he's more like the nerdy mythomagic ten-year-old he used to know. Adora took Jonathan's hand and pulled him back towards our room. I was hoping that she'd go back to sleep once this was over. So much for that thought. We had four rooms in the big house set up but last night all of us had slept in the same room. It was a mess. Our clothes and bags were thrown into the corner and the rest of the room looked like the Athena cabin had thrown up. It was full of maps and blueprints and lists and markers.

"What happened in here?" Leo asked in awe. I closed the door behind us.

"We're going after the seven," Kat said.

Leo smiled. "I like how you think," he did finger guns.

Kat was the kind of person who rarely ever broke the rules. She was a lot like her dad. More Roman. Casey was the complete opposite. She inherited the troublemaker side of both our parents. Casey has the intelligent and personality of our mom, but the rebellious and dare-devil side of our dad. When our parents had kids, they thought that we'd all have dad's powers. They were wrong. Casey doesn't have _any_ of dad's powers. I, being their first kid, guess I got lucky. Well, " _lucky_." I've got the intelligence of Mom and the powers of Dad. Pretty cool right? Yeah, no. I have a stronger scent than my dad, and it really sucks. Every time I go out with my friends I am on constant alert, and when I'm with my siblings I almost always have my hand on my sword. Camp was the only place I could let down my guard. Well, not anymore.

"How are we going to get there?" Leo snapped me out of my thoughts. Max and I exchanged a look. We? Looks like we've got ourselves a chaperone.

"Well," Jonathan began, "you built the Argo ll right?"

Oh man, I forgot about that! This was brilliant!

"What do you think about the Argo lll?" His twin finished. Leo's grin widened. He pulled a screwdriver from his tool belt.

"Let's do this."

 _(Hey guys! I'm still really sick so I decided to give you a longer chapter than usual in case I end up having to go back to the hospital. Blehg. Thanks for reading and I also have another book, Percy Jackson and the Avengers, if that sounds cool to you! :) )_


	6. Step 1 to driving a warship: Call Leo

Leo Valdez was a machine.

He completed in four days what the Hephaestus cabin have been working on for eighteen years. He somehow made a giant cabin at the head of the boat for Fetus- and his head now stuck out in the front. He was a part of the boat but he could be unattached. Leo had somehow convinced the rest of Camp that he was just trying a few things but he was really fixing the Argo ll. We had almost the entire camp helping us, somehow keeping all of it a secret from Chiron. We had people getting supplies ready and people helping Leo and almost everybody else was planning, making weapons and self-defense or planning. The Hecate cabin was helping disguise the ship while the Hermes cabin was making it a high-power pranking machine. Not safe pranks. I mean grenades and traps disguised as water balloons.

Five days after Leo arrived back at Camp, I understood why Aunt Piper called him Repair Boy. He rounded up the entire second generation of the 7 and hauled us all to Bunker 9.

"Behold! The beauty of-,"

"Can it get us to Greece?" Casey interrupted. She was under a lot of stress. Adora had finally realized what was really going on and Casey was her designated shoulder to cry on. I could tell that the stress was weighing her down but I didn't know how to help, besides getting our parents back. Leo deflated, obviously not happy about having his speech interrupted.

"Yeah, it will get us to Greece." he looked like was going to start another speech but he was interrupted again,

"Better have room for 2 more."

The entire group spun around. Nico's arms were crossed and he was trying to look like an angry parent. Besides him, Will was doing the exact same thing. I had to laugh at the look on Leo's face. He looked like Annabeth had just caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. Terrified.

"Well come on, somebody speak. When will the ship be up and running?" Nico asked. I smiled Jonathan smiled and looked to Leo.

"Uh, it's ready," the son of Hephaestus stuttered. Nico smiled and nudged Will, who dropped the parent act.

"Go get your stuff together. Bring it to Nico's cabin so Chiron doesn't get suspicious; we'll transport it all from there," Will ordered. I don't think he realized the rest of the camp had already gotten our stuff prepared. He turned to leave but I stopped him.

"What about Adora and Oscar?" I asked.

"Camp isn't safe anymore. They already took six of the seven, we don't know if they'll try and get you kids or not," Nico answered doubtfully. I could see the worry in his eyes.

I looked at Kat, who was holding Oscar, and Adora who was latched to Max's hand. If whoever kidnapped our parents wanted to get us too, we won't let ourselves be easy targets.

"We'll take them with us. If Camp isn't safe, then it'll be safer for us to take them with us and protect them," I decided. I didn't really like the idea of taking my two little siblings with us on a quest to find monsters straight from Tartarus. I also didn't want to the leave them here to get picked off by whatever monster had gotten our parents. I'd rather have them by my side where I could protect them than at Camp by themselves. Well, they wouldn't be by themselves, but they'd be without me. Not that I could protect them, I just felt better when they were within reach. I had hoped to say goodbye to everybody at Camp but now all I wanted to do was get on board and leave as fast as we could. It hadn't even been a week yet. How had mom gone so long when Dad went missing the first time? I missed them so bad that it physically hurt. Will and Nico helped everybody get loaded while Leo began waving around what looked to be a Wii controller. Not even going to ask.

Large panels opened on the Bunker ceiling, revealing the blue sky above us.

"Maiden voyage of the Argo lll! Second generation, whoo hoo!"

(time skip)

At first, the voyage was exciting. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and I stood on the top of the deck at the very front of the deck. But by the end of the first day, I was in my cabin going through blueprints. Usually, I'd be watching the little kids but Nico and Will had basically taken over Oliver and Adora and I wasn't complaining. Don't get me wrong, I loved my siblings, but I had a lot on my mind. Alone time was something I didn't get very often anymore so I cherished it.

The blueprints weren't easy to concentrate on. I was too busy thinking about my parents and the rest of the seven. How would we find them? Would we get to them in time? What was happening to them? The blueprints weren't distracting me very well. I missed my family.

"Jase?"

I hadn't even noticed Max enter. It looked like he'd just woken up and his cheeks were red. I knew that his parents' disappearance was really getting to him more than the rest of us, but only I knew why. Max was going to be a big brother. The Zhang twins weren't due for another 9 months, but Max talked about them every day. The rest of the seven didn't know yet. I only knew because Max was dying of excitement and just had to tell somebody. He was worried about his parents but he was also worried about his unborn siblings. Will was the only other person who knew. He was the entire camp's doctor and it was impossible to keep baby secrets from him. When Mom was pregnant with Oscar, he knew before my parents did.

"Come on in," I finally replied. Max had already closed the door behind him and plopped down on the foot of my bed. I sharing my dad's old room with Oliver and Jonathan. Jonathan was off in the kitchen so we had some time to talk before he got back. We wanted to tell the others about Max being a big brother but we also knew it would only worry them even more.

"How are you doing?" I asked. I was worried about him. He was a strong kid but I knew that he needed to talk about it. He was the talky-feely type. His hair fell in his eyes and he didn't bother to fix it. Max had curly dark hair like Hazel but looked like his dad in most other aspects. When we were eight he was staying over one night and I woke up to a full grown python on the guest bed. So yeah, just like his dad.

"We need to find them, Jase. I know that demigods die almost every day, but why does it always have to be us? Haven't they lost enough already? I mean, my mom's already died once and you dad should have died hundreds of times. How come our family has gotten it so much worse than everybody else?" He looked down. The bed was in the corner of the room and he was leaning against the wall. He was a big guy but the helpless expression on his face somehow made him look small.

I sighed and did my best to help, "It's not just us, Max. Remember Zoe? Selena and Beckendorf? The stories about Luke and Ethan Nakamura? Think about Nico. He lost his mother when he was a kid then was stuck in a magical time stopping hotel for 80 years, then when he finally got out his sister, the only family he has left, leaves to join a group of immortal girls that despise boys. He's claimed by Hades, making him an outcast when he was still just a kid, then Bianca goes off on some quest with a prophecy of death, and she never comes home," I paused, taking a breath and thinking about my godfather. "He's an outcast for years, switching between roman and greek camps. Percy goes missing and appears in Camp Jupiter, forcing him to keep his oath about the secret of both camps and watching everybody suffer. Everybody is finally reunited, then one of his homes goes up in flames, but they go to war with each other. He _willingly_ travels to Tartarus to find the doors of death and gets kidnapped. I'm going to stop there, but don't forget about everything that happened that. I mean, would you want to be turned into a corn plant? And somehow, after all these years, he's happy."

Max didn't have anything to say. He nodded slowly. I knew I made a good point, but I don't think I made him feel any better. I wasn't great at pep-talks.

"Max, listen. Our family is stronger than any other that I've ever heard of. If our parents can survive Tartarus and listening to Leo for hours on end, they'll be fine. We'll get them back," I promised. Max nodded again. His eyes were locked on his hands, which were rested neatly in his lap. Like Frank, Max wasn't ADHD. He's told me that he'd prefer to have ADHD than the lactose intolerance; he loved ice cream. He opened his mouth to speak but my door slammed opened before he got the chance. Kat stood in the doorway.

"We have good news and we have bad news."

Neither of us responded.

"Good news, we don't have to listen to Leo's bad jokes anymore. Bad news, Leo's gone and WHO THE HADES KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE A WARSHIP?"

 _(Yo! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading! I'm going to be publishing another chapter later tonight because I'm headed back to the hospital tomorrow and won't be able to publish until the day after. Confusing, right? Sorry. Have an awesome day!)_


	7. Step 2 to driving a warship: WHERE'S LEO

Ok so I'll have to admit, I have no clue how to drive a warship. I mean, I'd gone over a few of the blueprints and read a few books the Hephaestus cabin had on hand about mechanics but I'm not sure an afternoon of boredom study time qualified me to drive a warship.

"Where's Casey?" She'll know more about this than me. She's more into the mechanics and magic myth stuff than I am. Max wiped his damp cheeks on his sleeve while the Kat pretended not to notice. She wasn't great with emotions.

"I'll go find her," Max said.

I stood up and grabbed Kat's wrist. "Get everybody to their cabins. I need Nico and Will to meet me in the control room," I ordered. Kat nodded and ran off to find my godparents. As I ran down the hall I tried to keep my cool. What would Mom do in this situation? I bet my parents actually _have_ been in this situation. I wish they were here. "Casey!" I yelled. She rounded the corner just as I reached the main control room.

"What can I do?" she asked. I looked at her helplessly and shrugged.

"I have no idea. Just try your best, I believe in you."

She gave me a bewildered look and motioned wildly at the chaos around her. "Your belief gives me nothing! _I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A WARSHIP, JASON_!"

I backed off. Just then, Nico entered the room. "Are you two ok?" He asked. I nodded but Casey threw her arms into the air and yelled, "Do I look like I'm ok?!"

Nico wisely didn't answer. He skimmed his fingers across the panel and the ship evened out its course. I stared at him in disbelief. He saw my face and smirked.

"What?" he said. "Did you all I did was sit in dark corners and look gloomy?" I shrugged. He had a good point. I never really thought about what Nico did while aboard the Argo. I guess I always just assumed he sat in his cabin and stared at the wall all gloomy-like.

Once the ship had gone back to normal, I went to check on the others but Will caught my arm as I was exiting to the main room.

"Will, what is it? Nico's in the control room."

He shook his head. "Jace, sit down," he ordered. He wasn't using his doctor voice, he was using his I'm-your-godfather-and-I-am-worried-about-you voice. Yes that is an actual thing. I did as I was told."You are overworking yourself. If I'm right, and you know I am, you haven't given yourself a break since last time your mother made you," he said. Will was right. I don't ever take a break. I wake up, help get the little kids ready, dad makes breakfast and takes us to school, go to school, pick up the other kids on the way home, help Adora with her homework and help Casey with hers if Mom isn't home, do my own homework, study, sleep, repeat. I tended to overwork myself to the point that Mom or Dad have to step in and make me take a few breaths. I remember Dad dropping everybody off, then bringing me to get hot chocolate and he actually brought me to the bookstore for a break. Mom used to bring me to work with her when I was getting particularly stressed, and I'd get to spend the day helping Mom.

I'm not sure how long I had been thinking but Will was looking increasingly concerned by my lack of response. He shook his head, "Your mother is going to kill me," he sighed. Will always knew what to say. I laughed, although the sound was forced.

"Will, relax. I'm not going to have a panic attack. I'm going to be fine."

He smiled, "You better be. Take a break. Give yourself at _least_ 15 minutes."

I nodded along. Yeah, not going to happen. I was going to give myself five minutes, then go back to researching. Then I'll try to iris message my parents. Again.

(Time skip)

Nico had the ship under control and Nico was watching Oliver while Adora was on deck with Kat and Jonathan. I decided to take Will's advice and take a break. I went through my bag of stuff that Casey and Kat had packed and found my glasses, then got out a good book and began to take an actual break. I almost go to the point of feeling relaxed.

I think the fates heard me.

I had been laying down for no more than ten minutes when there was once again a crash from the deck. My dad always said he had bad luck with the fates. I think I may have inherited that from him. At least Dad had Mom. I know it sounds selfish of me, seeing as how Dad lost his memory and was apart from mom for eight months, but he still had her. I didn't have anybody that I could count on like that. I could always talk to Max and the others but not like my parents did. I didn't want to tell anybody about how worried I was because I knew it would only stress them out, which lead to me getting even more stressed out. I should probably stop sitting in my own self-pity and find out what happened.

On the deck was a small porky man. His nose was red and his eyes were misty as if he was hung over. His Hawaiian shirt almost looked like something my grandfather would wear but his back curly hair was almost purple, showing that he was definitely not Poseidon.

I'd seen Mr. D before, but he finished most of his punishment and didn't spend much time at Camp anymore. That didn't mean I didn't recognize him. I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose to make sure I saw him correctly.

"Jack Johnson! You look just like your father. Full of yourself."

Who the Hades is Jack Johnson? It took me a minute to realize that he was talking to me. That confirmed it. There was no other god that messed up names like this.

"You think you're sooo powerful,"

"Dionysus, why are you here?" I said, feeling a bit like my dad as I spoke. I didn't feel confident and I knew what I was doing was stupid but I didn't care. Just like Dad. You should never interrupt a god. But my family was missing, kidnapped my titans and monsters that had escaped from Tartarus. I was not in the mood for the gods' crap.

"You should treat me with some respect," Mr. D said, narrowing his eyes. I folded my arms across my chest.

"As long as you want something from me, I can treat you however you want." I knew he wasn't here to help, so he wanted something. I didn't want to help. My family has done so much for the gods since they before they even got to camp and yet they were still asking things from us? Even as we were trying to _find_ them? Dionysus looked like he wanted to turn me into a dolphin but didn't do anything. That's what I thought. Jonathan stepped in front of me and took over, which was probably a good thing.

"What can we do for you?" he asked. I wanted to roll my eyes but he had a threateningly tight hold on my wrist to keep me at bay.

"I am busy so I would have you find my wine glass for me. Aphrodite is upset at me for _upsetting her ship_ , although she doesn't have a boat so I am not sure what that's even supposed to mean. No matter, she took my prized golden goblet and has it has been hidden from my view. Of course, I _could_ find it but I am much too busy for matters as small as this," he said, waving his arms nonchalant and hinting that we were to find his goblet. He couldn't even drink wine, why did he need his wine glass?

"Sir, we are currently on a mission to save-," Jonathan was cut off by Mr. D waving his hand to dismiss the subject.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll give you something that will help get my goblet back, maybe with that other thing too. I need it as soon as possible and I would prefer you not to die before you get it to me." He raised his arm and we all turned around while Kat held her hand over Adora's eyes to protect her. When we turned back around, Dionysus was gone.

Why. Just, why.

 _(Hey what's up? Hope you all had an amazing day because you are all amazing people!)_


	8. Dam Mr D

To say I was mad would be a vast understatement. My family was in trouble and I had limited time to find them alive (I refuse to think they're dead) and this stupid god wants us to find his _wine goblet_? I get it, Dionysus didn't love my dad, but how many years did he spend at Camp? How did he care so little about them? I could feel the concerned looks of the others being sent in my direction. _I_ was fine. Our parents were the ones we should be worried about. Why wasn't anybody else angry about this?

"Jase, what are you doing?" Kat asked as she approached me. I shrugged. I wasn't going anything. She set her hand on mine and I felt my muscles relax. I hadn't realized how tense I was. My fists were clenched so hard that my knuckles had turned white. My glasses had slipped down my nose but I was too angry to push them back up so I looked like a deadly angry librarian. A great look, really.

"I don't understand why we have to do this stupid side quest for Dionysus. What we _need_ to do is find the Seven! Where does he even expect us to start this stupid thing?"

Will was right. I needed a break. At this point, I just wanted to go home and go to sleep. If this had never happened, then I'd be at Camp, training with my friends and going back to being lazy and carefree. The least stressed I ever am is when I'm at Camp Half-Blood. We were protected there. Nothing could get to us at Camp.

I was wrong about that.

Dad was only at Camp for a couple hours when he was taken and Mom hadn't been there for a full ten minutes when she disappeared. How had the kidnappers even gotten to Camp? And how in Hades did _nobody_ notice revenge-stricken monsters taking any of the Seven? They took Leo straight from the ship we were on right now, which means they could get any of us. Was anywhere safe? I almost wished I would be kidnapped too so I could just be taken straight to my family and figure this out. I wanted to be in control, and right now I had no control. I had nothing. I wasn't even sure where we were going. We were basically just heading towards Greek, where the monsters of Tartarus would most likely be. The Doors of Death, where they were last defeated. Even though the doors no longer worked, we knew that monsters were big on revenge so their take-down would most likely be where they had previously been beaten. Problem: we didn't know where the doors were. Last time the seven found them, nobody was really anxious to get the information down. They were mostly just too busy being thankful to be alive and trying to stop the Camps from going to war _and_ trying to stop Gaea from killing everybody. And I didn't have time because now we had to go on some stupid side-quest for Dionysus.

How did Mom and Dad usually start these things? Usually, the gods at least gave them somewhere to start. All Mr. D had said was that he had lost his goblet because he pissed off Aphro-wait, Aphrodite! That's it!

"Jonathan! Kat!" I turned around so quickly that Casey nearly jumped from her socks. The Grace twins looked nearly alarmed as my sister but they approached me. Adora was staring at me as if I was an alien. I didn't usually yell so I guess my outburst had rattled her. I wanted to apologize, but we had more pressing matters.

I took a deep breath to momentarily calm myself before I told the others my plan. "I need you guys to pray to your grandmother and try to get her down her. Ask her for a makeover or something, just tell her whatever you have to to get her down here," I said. Jonatan quickly nodded, taking Kat's wrist and dragging her away before she had a chance to protest.

"Everybody else, I don't know. Just, try and get some rest."

Casey and Will left with Adora, whispering amongst themselves. I turned around and walked to the bow of the ship, looking over the edge at the endless span of water below us. Max appeared next to me. I knew he wanted to help but I really just wanted to be alone.

"Max, you should get some rest," I said. He ignored me.

"You know, the gods sometimes do things that aren't great, but we still need to respect them. If you start thinking like you are now, bad things happen,"

I didn't let him finish. "Really, Max. You should get some rest," I said, straining to sound polite but unable to hide the hard edge in my voice. He looked hurt. Part of me wanted to apologize, but a larger part of me was busy disagreeing with him. I didn't say anything as he left.

I knew what happened when people like me started thinking like this. When a demigod started to doubt the gods. The result is something along the lines Luke Castellan. But that wasn't going to be me. I wasn't like that. Just because I disagreed doesn't mean I wanted to overthrow Olympus.

I wanted so badly just to jump over the side of the ship and sink into the water. I needed some sense of calming and the water usually provided that. But there was too much work to do. I still had to go through all my mom's journals and see if she recorded anything about the location of the door of death. I had spent nearly 20 drachmas on Iris messages already and it wasn't getting me anywhere but I was going to keep trying, just in case.

(Time skip)

"Oh, Jason Jackson!" Aphrodite sang, flirting her way towards me. I assumed her appearance meant that the twins had succeeded in their task. I was still alone on the deck so I slowly turned around and leaned against the railing.

"Aphrodite," I greeted her dryly. She raised her eyebrows in a somehow ladylike way.

"What seems to be the problem? I don't remember being on bad terms with you last time we spoke," she said.

Last time we spoke? Last time we spoke was when she appeared at our house in the middle of the day in tears because I was too busy to go to my first high school dance. I didn't go to the dance because I was fighting a giant, just in case that wasn't clear.

"As you may know, Dionysus has sent us on a side quest while we're trying to find-"

"Oh, how atrocious! I couldn't imagine why anybody would send you on a quest while you're doing something so important!" she cried, flailing her arms and caressing my cheek. I pulled away from her perfume ridden body.

"He's sending us on this quest because you got angry at him and hid his wine goblet. He wants us to find it."

She looked appalled. Well, not really, but she was sure trying. Aphrodite was wearing a long white elegant robe that didn't leave much to the imagination. Her hair was gingery silver, a color I'm quite sure how to describe. I didn't really know why people say she appears as what you find most attractive because I was most certainly not attracted to her. Her curves were just body parts to me and nothing about her made me swoon. She was used to having boys and girls and whoever else drooling all over her but I think she got annoyed when people like me didn't. I have a theory about this. You see, I don't think Aphrodite appears as what you find most attractive, I think she appears as whatever she _thinks_ you find most attractive. Every time I saw her she looked different. Don't get me wrong, it's not like she wasn't pretty. I mean, she's Aphrodite; she's beautiful. But she's not what I picture when I think of who I want to be with. Actually, I don't know either. I've kind of just assumed that I'm not going to make it to that point in my life so why bother? Basically, I didn't find Aphrodite attractive because of my lack of plans for the future. Some theory, huh?

"Of all mortals he could have chosen for this task! I just don't understand how-."

"Just tell me where the glass is," I sighed. I added a quick, "Please," in afterthought. Aphrodite sighed dramatically.

"I don't know! I just kind of tossed it somewhere over Orlando!" She exclaimed.

"Orlando, Florida?!"

She nodded. "

You threw a _goblet_ into _Orlando, Florida_." We were never going to find this goblet.

"Is there anything else you can tell me?" I asked after she nodded in confirmation. My patience was running thin.

"Umm," She raised a finger to her mouth as if in thought. I'll take that as a no.

"Ok, then I've got a lot of work to do. Excuse me." I stormed past her and back into the main full.

"Nico! Change course for Florida," I called into the control room.

"That's in the opposite direction!" Nico groaned. He was going to say something else but paused when he saw me.

"Jase, you look like you're about to kill somebody," he said. I felt like it too.

"I want to run them through-,"

"I know. I agree. But you have to be careful how you talk about the gods, Jase. They're always somebody listening," he warned. He knew I was talking about the gods. This made my blood boil.

"Or really? So somebody was listening when my dad was fighting for his life within the borders of Camp Half-Blood? A place where he _should_ be safe? Was there somebody listening when Olympus's greatest heroes were kidnapped by monsters from Tartarus? Or maybe they just didn't care! Oh, who cares that my parents saved their asses from downfall multiple times or faced _and_ defeated entities that even the gods were too scared to look in the eye? Who was listening then?!" I yelled towards the sky. The sky didn't answer me. Nico did.

"Nobody ever said the gods were fair, Jackson."

Well isn't that an understatement. I was only getting angrier. I knew I needed to calm down, so I turned on my heel and left. It was just so unfair. After everything they'd done, this is how the gods repay them. As each day passed I grew more and more certain that they were dead, but I also knew that whatever monster that had done it would probably be bragging if that were the case. So why were they keeping them alive? I didn't stop to ponder the thought, I was more consumed with being grateful that they weren't dead.

(Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I update daily so come back around about this time tomorrow if you want to read more: :) ) 


	9. Mr D's gift

I had been attacked by a lot of monsters in my time. Heck, I'd even fought a few giants and a god here and there. But this, this was new.

"Duck!" Kat yelled as she threw her dagger at high velocity towards my head. I barely had time to hit the deck before it burrowed into the machine or whatever it was attacking us. I couldn't tell what it was, it flew too fast. Mechanical tings and other annoying sounds could be heard. It was shooting what looked to be fiery balls of dirty laundry at our ship and I was doing everything I could to keep the flames at bay. I wasn't sure we'd last another five minutes at this rate. The weird thing about our enemy was that it didn't seem to every attack or fire on us, just on the ship. And it's attacks were never aimed at the control room as if it were trying to preserve it. Maybe it was somebody trying to accommodate our ship for themselves. Not gonna happen; this boat was the biggest chance I had at finding my parents.

"Will get back!" Nico yelled, grabbing Will's arm and yanking him backward. A fireball landed on the deck between them, sending flames skittering across the floor.

"Jase!" Will uselessly got my attention. As if anybody could _not_ see the fire consuming our ship. I did a smash up job of painting the deck with a layer of seawater, but I was running out of energy and time. Somebody needed to do something- and quick. And as always, the gods' promise had given us nothing. Dionysus has told me he'd give me something to help us find the goblet and get our parents. So far, I haven't heard as much as a word.

"Thanks a lot, Mr. D," I muttered.

I guess Nico was kind of right. _Somebody_ was listening alright. And Dionysus must have been mad because he sent us another ball of fire, but this one was screaming.

"HOLY SHIIIIIIII-"

The flaming, screaming, I don't know what it was, slammed straight into the ship's mast. As the flames subsided and he slid down the mast and onto the deck, I was able to recognize our newest assault as a boy, about my age, maybe a year or two younger. He groaned and rolled over to stand up.

"What in the hell…?" He cursed like a mortal, something I didn't expect on a flying Greek warship. His skin was dark brown and his eyes were the color of almond chocolate. He wasn't very tall, maybe five and a half feet.

"He's not really a demigod, but I can't tell what he is," Will muttered. Not a demigod? But he isn't mortal either. He didn't _look_ like a monster but I knew better than to believe it. Perks of being Apollo's son, Will could sense these kinds of things easier, so I trusted his instinct.

"Who are you?" I asked, pointing the tip of my sword to his chest. His eyes followed the sword up to the handle until he got to my face.

"Oh, God. I'm dreaming right now. This is just a very lucid dream. I'm dreaming," he said. He raised his hand and pinched himself. No monster I've met was stupid enough to forget it's own attack. This was a first.

"Not dreaming, buddy." Casey stepped up next to me. The stranger moved his mouth like he wanted to talk but no words came out. I couldn't tell if he looked more confused, or terrified. Yeah, not like any monster I've ever seen.

"He's a good guy," Adora said, walking casually onto the deck. I subconsciously lowered my sword and scooped her up.

"Adora Jackson! There are balls of fire raining down on this ship, it's dangerous! We don't know what monsters are out there!"

Casey took over threatening whoever was on our deck while I lectured Adora.

"Excuse me," the mystery guy said, staring at me. I really need to learn his name. "but did you just say monsters?" he asked slowly. "Like werewolves and vampires?" Did this guy really not know _anything_?

"Uh, no." Jonathan looked more confused than the boy did. "Greek monsters,"

The strange boy's eyes went wide before rolling back into the back of his head. Kat poked him with a broomstick, her weapon of choice.

"He just, dude he just passed out. Like seriously, he passed out!" she said. No way this kid was a monster. I don't think he even knew about the Greek world. We all stood around him, staring and unsure what to say. We were interrupted by another attack by the infamous, thing, that was attacking us.

"Ok that's it we need to get off the deck. I don't have the energy to keep anything else from this boat and I know I'm not the only one. Nico, bring us back down to the water and I'll try and soak everything up here so it will be harder to catch fire. Everybody, get inside," I quickly ordered everybody below decks.

In the dining hall, we laid the unconscious boy out onto the table. Max insisted we at least put a pillow under his head.

"What do we do with him?" Casey asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know, but before we make any decisions we should figure out who he is. Will? Can you wake him up, please?" I requested. Will nodded and placed his hands on the boy's chest. A glowing yellow light filled the cabin. It was so bright that I had to close my eyes.

"What the fu-," the boy cut himself off when he looked around. "Small children present, no cursing. Got it," he muttered to himself. He stared at us like he could tell if we were insane or if he was. "Where am I? Who are? How did I get here? What the frick is going on?" I think all of us are insane.

Will was out of energy, and in the corner of the room, I saw Nico pressing a damp cloth to his forehead. Damn, the kid must have really been out of it. The group looked to me.

"We'll answer your questions, but first you'll answer ours," I said. The boy glanced around the room again and nodded. "Good. Now first of all, who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Charlie, Charlie Valdez."

 _(Hey guys, I've got good news! I am finally out of the hospital and I got to come back home! I will be back to my daily updates on BOTH stories :) Thanks for reading!)_


	10. Charlie Valdez

"You're Charlie _Valdez_?" Max said. I agreed. Valdez was a pretty common name but I didn't believe in a coincidence this big. He nodded unsurely.

"Last I checked…"

"Does the name Leo Valdez mean anything to you?" I asked. His eyes widened and he jumped from the table.

"What do you know about my dad? Where is he?!" He sounded as worried as we were. Gears turned in my brain as I put it all together. Leo said he left Calypso back in California, which made more sense now that I knew he had a kid there too. If he hadn't told Charlie about the Greek world then no wonder he left them in California. That would also explain why Will couldn't figure out what he was. Calypso was a titan, Leo was a demigod. So Charlie was half titan half demigod. That made him one fourth god and one fourth mortal and one half titan.

"Your dad is a Greek demigod. He's the son of Hephaestus," I said. Everybody looked at me like I was insane.

"Jase, you say this as if he didn't already know," Kat hinted. I nodded.

"He doesn't."

Gasps could be heard around the room. Nico raised himself from the floor.

"Leo and Calypso never told him?" he said quietly. Charlie chuckled without humor.

"This is just some big joke, isn't it? This is exactly the kind of thing Dad would pull. Come on out dad! Great job, really!" He looked round the room as if Leo would pop around any corner. I looked to Nico and nodded. We needed to prove a point.

Shadows seemed to reach from the corners of the room and the temperature dropped. Nico reached behind him into one of the shadows and pulled out his Stygian iron sword. He swung it around a few times for effect before putting it back into the shadow and letting them melt back into the corners of the room. He didn't notice the proud, triumphant smirk on Will's face.

"Oh God," Charlie muttered.

"God _s_ ," Jonathan corrected. I thought Charlie was going to pass out again. Thankfully, he didn't.

"Ok so wait a minute, go back, what were you saying about my dad?" he asked, obviously trying to keep calm. I recognized the worrisome tone in his voice and decided the best move was to tell him what we knew

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus. One of the prophecy of Seven, architect of the Argo 2 and the Argo 3, destroyer of Gaea and countless other beasts, currently held captive with the rest of the prophecy of seven by monsters from Tartarus," I said. The more I spoke, the smaller Charlie seemed to make himself.

"Wait, my dad was kidnapped?" He suddenly stood upright and a look of alarm crossed across his face. I nodded.

"The prophecy of Seven is a group of seven demigods who were tasked with closing the Doors of Death and taking down Gaea before she had a chance to wake. The prophecy of seven were kidnapped by monsters from Tartarus for reasons we're unsure of. We're going to find them and get them back," I tried to explain but I knew this was a lot of information for one kid to comprehend. He looked like he was trying to understand everything at once. He also looked like he was failing.

"Just give me like a year to figure this out," he said quietly. He looked heart-broken. I tried to imagine what my life would be like if my parents had never told me of my heritage. At first I thought it would be terrible, but then I really thought about it. I wouldn't be worrying about dying every day, I would be able to spend my weekends hanging out with friends instead of learning how to fight monsters at Camp. I would be able to actually focus on my school work and maybe even try to get into a good college. Now, I planned my future for my family because I wasn't sure I was even going to live that long. I understood why Leo didn't tell Charlie. I almost wish my parents hadn't ever told me. But if I never knew, then would be here to save them now?

A small shock wave hit the ship and I was harshly reminded of the matter at hand. We were still being attacked by a mystery flying monster with fire balls. Charlie looked terrified. I figured that somebody should probably stay behind and help him, so I told Will to wait down here while the rest of us went back up to fight the mystery monster.

"Well you have like five minutes until our boat is knocked from the sky and we all die, so you might want to make sense of this pretty quickly," I said before rushing back up to the deck.

"Wait, did you just say the _sky_?!" I heard Charlie yell from behind me. Nobody bothered to answer him.

The front deck was chaos. Balls of fire lay all over and were threatening to burn our ship to the ground. I was beginning to regret not letting Leo and the Hecate cabin spend an extra day fireproofing the sails. The wood itself was fireproof thanks to something Leo so the flames wouldn't do anything to the boat, but they could still catch the sail, and us, on fire.

"Somebody figure out what that godsdamn stupid thing!" Casey screamed in outrage. I didn't blame her, I was about to do the same. I couldn't tell what was attacking us and it drove me crazy. I hated not knowing, I hated not being in control. I lifted my arms, bringing a jet of water into the sky. The flying, thing, swerved carelessly at the last second, deeming my attack nothing but a waste of energy. The deck door opened and Charlie shakily entered the scene. He was holding Casey's blue plastic hairbrush in front of him in defense. I was a little preoccupied so I motioned vaguely for one of the others to cover him.

Apparently, the mystery monster recognized Charlie as the group's weakness and targeted him. The fireball came too fast for me to even register. I screamed for him to duck but he didn't have the instincts or training of a demigod. The fireball hit Charlie right on, sending him flying backwards.

"Oh, Hades!" Casey yelled, running to cover him. I doused him with water to distinguish the flames. Even whatever we were fighting seemed to stop its attack.

Miraculously, Charlie stood up. He was dripping wet and his clothes were scorched, but he looked overall unharmed. At first this surprised me because, well, the dude was just on fire. Then I felt like an idiot because I realized this was Leo's kid. Of course he was fire resistant.

By the look on his face, I'm assuming Charlie hadn't known this either.

 _(Hi peeps! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I update daily so comment what you'd like to see next and I will try to include your ideas in upcoming chapters! I update daily so I if you like what you're reading please come back tomorrow :) )_


	11. I've never fought a table before

The attacks stopped once Charlie had been hit. The unidentified flying object flew in quick bursts so I could never make out the shape. If I knew what we were dealing with then I'd be able to find a way to fight it. It was unlike any monster I'd ever seen before, yet it didn't seem to be fighting us. Now it just flew over the ship and made the noise of turning gears. It must have been a robot, but what kind? Who made it and why was it after us?

"What is it?!" Casey yelled in frustration, throwing pieces of wood at the flying thing. Charlie squinted at the object.

"It's a machine," he said quietly. I stopped next to him.

"How do you know that?" I asked,

He shrugged. "I don't know."He suddenly ran forward, _between_ us and the machine. What was this dude trying to accomplish? "STOP!" He yelled, which was actually quite loud for his size. "Stop fighting it!"

I didn't lower my sword but I stopped my canons of water. Charlie turned towards the object and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture. What was he doing? Was he _inviting_ that thing on board? It just threw a ball of fire at him! This guy may just be crazier than Leo.

The flying object actually slowed down. I adjusted my glasses, not sure I was trusting them. What landed on our deck was, a table? And was that a laundry hamper attached to the bottom?

"Is that a table? Kat asked. "Please tell me we have no spent the last hour and a half fighting a freaking table."

Max jumped. "OH! Guys! I think I remember a story like this that Dad told me!"

He didn't get a chance to finish before Nico approached the table with a confused look. "Buford?" he said. I lowered my sword.

"Wait, Buford as in the table? The table that Leo tamed in the woods with Piper and Jason?" Will asked. No, because there were so many other tables with a mind of their own named Buford in the demigod world that happened to have a hamper of Frank's _very_ old laundry. There was no way in Hades this quest could get any weirder. I guess my parents thought the same thing on every. Single. Quest. Ever.

The world of "mythology" is a very strange place. A place full of flying tables and a wine dude that turns people into dolphins. Trust me on that last part. (My grandfather turned me back, it's cool. But I still hate the dude. Wine sucks anyway.)

"Charlie," I said softly as Buford rubbed into him affectionately. "I think the table thinks you're Leo."

His eyes widened and he backed away from Buford. "I don't know that table though! I didn't even know that gods or demigods existed until like five minutes ago! I think this is a bit more than I can handle. Tell the table to leave me alone," he turned away. The table, if this is even possible, looked hurt by Charlie's words. It jumped forward and its single drawer slid open. Charlie stopped backing away and very gingerly pulled a strange looking hammer from the drawer.

"It's Dad's," he whispered.

"Wait, that's your dad's hammer? How did the table get it? Maybe it knows where the seven are!" Max said, getting excited. Max got his hopes up to easy.

Charlie shook his head. "No, my dad makes a bunch of these. I haven't seen this one before, but I know he made it. It looks like an older version of the ones he taught me to build…" He closed his eyes, then stood up straighter, holding the hammer steadily at his side. Determination was fierce in his eyes, his former joking look all but gone. He wanted to find his dad just as much as we did. For some reason, this made me trust him just a bit more. We had a common enemy. When powerful people have a common enemy and a strong motivation, a fight can only go one way.

We had a _lot_ of powerful people. And we had a very strong motivation. You can't just take our family and expect to get away with it. So what if this was probably a trap to get the Sevens' descendants? We weren't going down without one Hades of a fight.

"I'll take care of Buford. Can you guys explain everything to me? I want to know what we're up against," Charlie said, staring solemnly at the hammer in his hand. I nodded to Casey, who had the best memory out of all of us and could probably explain our world the easiest. She rolled her eyes at me but lead Charlie and Buford to the workshop where he could work on his table-dog-thing while she told him all of our stories.

"Nico, can you make sure we're headed for Orlando still? I don't want to get off track," I asked. Nico nodded and followed a bemused Will, who was watching the walking table disappear into the hull of the ship.

Max came up to me, acting almost shy. "Jase, you ok?"

Guilt ran through me as I remember what happened last time he'd tried to talk to me. "Max, I'm sorry I yelled. I'm just, really stressed. I know I shouldn't be taking it out on you guys-,"

"Don't worry about it. But this time listen to me when I say take a break," he smiled.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Take a break," _(AN: resisting urge to make Hamilton reference too strong...)_ he said. I wanted to argue, but I also didn't. What could I do besides go over all my research again and again until I passed out from exhaustion? I wouldn't be able to do _anything_ if I didn't get some rest.

"Fine."

 _(Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!)_


	12. Charlie is not human

(AU: For those who don't know, Orlando, Florida is home to a theme park called Universal Studios. In this place, there's Jurassic Park, the Simpsons, Marvel/DC, Harry Potter World, and more)

Thankfully, the rest of the way to Orlando was pretty uneventful. Casey was busy yelling at Max and Jonathan to notice where she was walking and fell off the side of the boat but besides that, nothing big. When we got to Orlando, Nico managed to somehow port at the dock next to four large cruise ships, hoping the mist would disguise us. The problem was, Nico wasn't very good at driving a warship. We were running low on supplies and Nico had run into a few floating islands and birds and a plane or two, so we needed to make repairs too. Charlie spent most of his time in the engine room, trying to figure out how the magical ship worked. He didn't seem to want to spend a lot of time with the rest of us and was still pretty upset about just know finding out about this world. Casey had been working- with Jonathan, Max, and I to try and figure out where in Orlando we should be searching. We weren't really getting anywhere. Max and Casey and Charlie were doing their best to repair the ship, which also wasn't working, and Will was watching Oliver and Adora. Nico, of course, was still pirating the ship. That wasn't going so well either.

"How are we supposed to fix this thing? We don't even know how to drive it!" Jonathan said, growing increasingly frustrated.

"Hey!" Nico yelled. "I take offense to that!"

The boat suddenly swerved and nearly knocked me off my feet as if to prove Jonathan's point. Will scoffed, holding his hand over his mouth to muffle the laugh.

"Well, we aren't completely clueless. We need celestial bronze, some more Greek fire for the canons, and some food for sure," Charlie spoke up from the corner of the room. He had navigated his way around the Greek and Roman technology surprisingly well. I guess that isn't too shocking, knowing who his father is.

"Where do we get that?" Kat asked.

"I didn't even know all this Greek stuff existed a week ago. I know where to get food though," Charlie offered with a shrug. Nico rolled his eyes and muttered something about _damn Valdez genetics._

"There's Celestial bronze nearly everywhere if you dig deep enough. We're most likely to find it near a body of water through, where the Naiads and water Nymphs are," Max said. He'd gotten his powers over the underground from his mom so I trusted his insight.

"Looks like we've got a supply run to make," Will smirked, crossing his arms. Nico elbowed him in the gut and his husband grunted in pain, causing Nico to smirk this time. Casey looked to be thinking as she made the face my mom usually did.

"I think we should do a group of three, just to be safe," she finally decided. I nodded in agreement, as did the others in the group.

"So, who's going?" Max asked sheepishly. He was always shy, even with a group of people that he's completely comfortable with.

Casey pondered this for a moment before handing out rolls, "Max, obviously, because he'll know where to find the bronze. Charlie, because he knows what we need to get,"

"Sorta," Charlie muttered.

Casey ignored him. "And Jase, because Max said it's probably going to be near water and you've got the most power."

"But there's also a problem with that," I said after she had finished. She raised her eyebrow in a silent question. "I have the _most_ power," I explained. I wasn't trying to show off or brag. I was usually modest, but I knew this. I was powerful, and going out may be dangerous.

"That's why there's only three of you going. Plus, Charlie should deter most monsters," Casey mentions.

Charlie's eyebrows creased together. "Why would I scare them off? Because I just found out about all of this?" he asked. Casey scoffed.

"Why would that make a difference? No, dummy. Being half god _and_ half titan? Monsters won't pay it much thought if they get a whiff of you,"

Charlie didn't look like he understood. "Excuse me, what?"

Kat answered this time, "They'll think you're one of them, so they probably won't attack. Especially if they don't know who your parents are," she explained. Charlie still didn't understand.

"Why would they think I'm one of them? Do Hephaestus kids have a different scent or something?"

Gods, this kid really didn't know _anything_.

"Your mom," I said plainly. He looked at me as if I'd just made an unfunny joke.

"What about my mom?" he asked defensively. Max looked slightly concerned, as did Will. The rest of us just looked annoyed.

"Calypso," I hinted, hoping he'd get it. "Your mom is Calypso."

"Yes, I know," he said as if he were talking to a child. I motioned with my hands for him to keep going. "My mom is Calypso." Then his eyes went wide. "My _mom_ is _Calypso_!"

"Will, you might want to take care of him," Kat muttered. Max backed away from the hyperventilating boy.

"My mom is Calypso! The Calypso! _The_ Calypso!"

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," Will said, taking Charlie by the arm and leading him to the medical bay. I wasn't exactly sure how Will was going to fix him or make Charlie feel better or whatever, but I had faith that he would.

"So… What now?" Jonathan asked. Nico had followed Will so the others looked to me for an answer.

"Until Charlie is ready to go we can't do anything for supplies, so in the meantime let's work on finding that dam goblet."

Yes, my dad told me about that dam Dam incident.

"How are we supposed to find a single goblet in Orlando? The place is a tourist trap! Plus, Universal studios is _full_ of goblets! What if she just chucked in in the middle of one of the theme parks and now it's in some random garbage can?" Kat said. Casey nodded in agreement and Max tried not to look like he agreed with them.

"Even if Aphrodite just tossed in down here, it's still a godly object. It will find somewhere to go. So we just need to find where a goblet would _belong_ ," Jonathan pointed out, thankfully taking my side.

"Yeah, let's just visit _every tourist shop in Orlando_!" Kat continued.

Jon looked at me to take over, so I did. "Not likely, the gods don't like when Mortal get their stuff, so if this wine goblet has any lasting residual effect from Dionysus, then it will most likely be somewhere that mortals can see it, but not somewhere they can access it. Gods like when mortals ogle over their things. So even if Dionysus didn't put the goblet there himself, it's location will still be influenced by the gods," I explained. Casey nor Katrina had a response for that, so I assumed that Jon and I had won the conversation.

"Max, get a bag ready. As soon as Charlie is somewhat sane, we're need to get supplies as quickly as possible. Casey, while I'm gone you take a team and start looking. Iris message me if _anything_ happens. And at least one person has got to stay here and watch the kids," I ordered before turning on my heel and going back to my room to pack a bag.


	13. Supply run

Charlie looked angry. I didn't blame him. He'd been lied to his entire life, and I hated it when people I cared about lied to me. I mean, I understood why Leo and Calypso didn't tell him, but it was still frustrating. And not just for Charlie, because the rest of us have to deal with him. He huffed at everything that stood in his way, including a rock he tripped on when he got off the dock.

"Ok Max, where to?" I asked, taking a deep breath. It was nice to be outside in the real world. It would be nicer if my parents were here, but Orlando brought back good memories. When Casey was a baby and I was about 6 or 7 years old, Mom and Dad had taken me to the Harry Potter theme park for my birthday. I'd read the series and quickly became obsessed, so it was a trip that I'd always remember. The rides had twisted through the castle and I'd gotten to see everything I'd read about, it was a dream came true.

"Jase, did you hear me? I said we should go a mile or so East, closer to the forest where the Naiads would be," Max repeated.

I nodded, glancing behind us just in case we were being followed. Because we were in Orlando, the closest thing to a forest was a grove of palm trees about a mile away. There was a small creek branching off from the ocean in the grove and it seemed the perfect place to find celestial bronze.

Apparently, it was the perfect spot for an ambush as well. We had predicted that Charlie's Titan genetics would scare the typical monster off, but whatever had attacked us wasn't typical. We'd entered the grove and all was calm. Max crouched, placing his hand on the ground, and told us that we were in the right spot.

"Coolio, how do we get the metal?" Charlie asked.

I smirked and raised my hands. The water rose from the small creek, but I didn't get a chance to find the bronze.

"Jase!" Max screamed my name, just before pain erupted from the back of my head and my world went black.

The demigod dreams came quickly after I was knocked out. I tried to force myself to wake up but stopped when I saw the vision my dream provided. My parents. Dad was tied down on a large slab of rock and above him hovered another boulder. The boulder was attached to a pulley and the only thing keeping it from dropping was my mom, who was holding onto the rope at the end of the pulley that kept the rock in place. In turn, she was in a large tank of water with a bubble around her. I assumed that my dad was the one creating the bubble because his face was contorted in effort. The water had some kind of deep purple colored liquid but the bubble kept it from touching Mom. That's why he wasn't using the water to escape. It was poison, and if he did anything with it Mom and/or the others would be killed by it. His eyes found my own and my heart stopped. He didn't know I was here, did he? His mouth dropped open and pulled upwards in a small smile. He did know I was there. I tried to yell his name, to call for him, but no sound came out. I knew I was crying. I could feel the tears on my cheek. He shook his head as if telling me to be calm. He momentarily closed his eyes and I could how tired he really was. Controlling water took a lot of effort by itself, but keeping the poison at bay as well? I didn't understand how he was still alive. I couldn't see the rest of the Seven but I could hear Aunt Piper yelling something about Repair boy, so I assumed Leo was there too.

"Ok Beauty Queen, I'm sorry! I know I should have contacted you, but I was scared! Besides, Jackson Junior already chewed me out. Give a guy a break!" Leo sounded a lot like Charlie. I tried to walk forward but felt myself being pulled further and further away.

I reached for my dad desperately. He smiled and nodded slowly, his own personal way of telling me it was ok. But it wasn't ok! It wasn't ok at all!


	14. The Forgotten

I woke with a start. I felt the bonds around my wrists, but none around my ankles. I was tied to a tree. I groggily opened my eyes and looked around. Max was tied to the tree close by. He was staring at me. When he noticed I was awake, he motioned forward with his head. In front of us was a monster I was yet to recognize. It had the body of a large deer, a stag probably, with the neck of a lion. It had a human-like face with a unworldly large mouth filled with a bone plate where its teeth would be.

"Well, it's finally awake."

It took me a moment to realize the beast was talking about me. I threw on a smile and shrugged. "What can I say? I'm not a light sleeper. Who are you?"

"I am the great Crocotta. The unrecognized. The forgotten. I lure men to their death by calling their names in the vanquish of dark but men no longer search for my lair. Men no longer hunt these lands, explore these trees. So I am forced to feed on the scum of the gods instead. Like you," the Crocotta hissed I hadn't heard of this monster before. My parents had tried to educate me and my siblings on monsters and gods in all mythologies, but apparently this guy really was unrecognized. Forgotten.

"Sorry about that, we must not taste very good." I finally found Charlie. He was tied to a tree behind me so I couldn't see him very well, but I did notice the growing stack of logs and sticks at his feet. He looked terrified. "What about my friend over there?" I asked, trying to sound casual. The Crocotta smiled and tilted its head.

"My dinner," it said, licking his lips. "Not god, not human. More. Better."

If he so much as laid a finger on Charlie, he'd be dead. I have Max a look that made sure he knew it too. Charlie didn't belong in this mess, and I wasn't going to let him die by some lowlife Florida swamp monster.

So Charlie being part titan had actually caused us more trouble than good. Of course. Like most monsters, I assumed we'd need demigod weapons to kill him. But my sword was in a pile with the rest of our weapons. Times like this are when I'm most jealous of my dad's magically returning sword. The monster added more wood to the pile beneath Charlie. Charlie was looking increasingly scared. Apparently he'd forgotten that he wouldn't be hurt by the flames the Crocotta planned to roast him with. I squirmed in attempt to loosen my bonds but to no avail. I stopped talking and let the monster do its thing. He was getting ready to burn Charlie, which I knew wouldn't work. We were bound with ropes, so the fire would burn through his bonds and Charlie would be free. That would be a perfect opportunity for a surprise attack. The problem was evident though; Charlie didn't know how to fight. He wasn't going to be of much help. Unless Max or I could get out of our bonds, then we'd all just die.

"Oh gods, I'm going to die and I'm never going to know what happened to my parents," Max whispered to me.

I frowned and was hit in the gut with memories of my dream. "They're alive," I said.

Max leaned to get closer. "What do you mean? How do you know?"

"I had a dream, a demigod dream. We've got to get out of here, and we've got to get to them," I said. Max nodded in agreement.

I summoned the creek water forward and tried to use it to loosen my bonds. "Max, I need you to do something," I whispered.

Max's eyes widened and he frantically shook his head. "Jase, I can't! I can barely do it with Dad coaching me for hours on end, and I'm too stressed out! I can't!" he cried, trying to be as quiet as he could while still freaking out.

"Yes, Maxwell Zang, you can! If you want to find your parents, you have to! I know you can, just calm down. Think about lunch at Camp-Half Blood, all the great dairy free food that have! Just think happy thoughts. It's ok, it's going to be ok. Take deep breaths."

He did as I told him. He breathed in a few shaky times then closed his eyes. The Crocotta was too busy licking the side of Charlie's face to realize that we were doing anything. I stared hopefully at Max, praying to the gods that he could do it.

Max's face morphed into a strange shade of green, as did the rest of him. Before the monster turned around, Max was out of his bonds. I grinned and tried to keep myself from cheering.

There was a screech as the Crocotta lit the fire beneath Charlie's feet. The screech came from Charlie, who squirmed to get away from the flames. Max the iguana used this as a distraction to skirt across the lawn and to my bonds. He began furiously chewing through the ropes that bound me, finishing just in time for the monster to realize that his dinner wasn't cooking. It screamed in outrage and turned back towards Max and I. Now free, I lunged for the pile of weapons and grabbed my sword, smiling at the familiar feeling of the weapon in my hand. Charlie jumped from the burning tree and shook the ash from his hair. His shirt had been burned almost perfectly in half, as were his pants. His boxers, covered in small yellow stars, remained completely uncharred.

"Shit this is terrifying! We gotta get out of here!" he screamed.

I got into a fighting stance. "No, Valdez, we have to eliminate the threat so no more demigods are killed," I countered.

Charlie groaned and rubbed his eyes. "I'm insane. I'm insane to stay here!" he shouted to himself.

"Like father like son," I muttered. Charlie's head snapped towards me and I immediately regretted speaking. The look on his face reminded me of my mom's when she told me that dad was missing. I looked away.

The monster attacking me stepped up its game, clapping its mouth's boney plates to create a painfully loud clapping sound. I nearly dropped my sword to cover my ears. Instead, I pretended to crouch over in pain. When it approached to finish me off, I jumped up and pushed my sword through the roof of its mouth. It clawed at me while it died, leaving only a few bloody scrapes on my chest and leg. Finally, it burst into gold dust and showered me and the iguana at my feet.

"Having trouble changing back?" I asked Max. No surprise, the iguana didn't answer.

"How the fu-"

"Silence. We've still got a job to do. Come on," I ushered him back to the creek and continued my work.

"You have dust in your hair," Charlie noted.

I nodded. "Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"That's what monsters do when they die, they turn to dust." I was trying to be patient with him. He didn't know much about this world, he was still learning. I was a pretty patient person, but right now I wasn't in a good mood. My head was killing me and the bloody scratches on my chest were making my shirt stick to me.

"But how?"

"I don't know! Godly magical mythical stuff. Help me out, we've got to hurry back," I said. Charlie stopped talking then, opting instead to help get the celestial bronze from the creek bed. In total, we got three large pieces. I carried two of them and Charlie had one. Charlie also carried Max the iguana. We arrived back at the dock about forty five minutes later. It was only a mile so it shouldn't have taken us that long, but we were carrying a heavy load, I was injured, and Charlie was basically wearing his underwear. We were trying to stay away from the public eye, so getting back to the ship took a while.

"Jasey what did you do?" Adora yelled from her perch at the bow of the boat.

"Adora get down from there! You're going to fall," I said instead of answering her question. She jumped back onto the deck and went to go tell the others were were back. Charlie and I piled the bronze onto a pile on the deck.

"Jason!" I recognized Casey's voice. She emerged from the gut of the boat with Will in tow. "Dora said you got hurt, what happened?"

I shrugged and handed her the iguana. "Found the Crocotta. Or well, it found us. Max turned into an iguana to cut me loose but now he can't turn back. Have any ambrosia?"

She scrunched up her eyebrows. "The what? I don't recognize that name."

"Exactly," I muttered. Will approached me and rolled his eyes. He handed me a block of the godly food and turned his attention to Charlie.

"What about you? Anything hurt?"

Charlie shook his head. "Just my ego. I'm gunna go find some clothes, then I'll try and fix the boat." He sauntered off towards the kitchen area, probably to find somebody to help him get clothes. He hadn't exactly had time to pack.

"Have you guys gotten the greek fire yet? Or any food?" I asked. Casey nodded.

"The twins took care of the food and Nico and I got some Greek fire," she answered.

"Any problems? Greek fire isn't exactly easy to come by."

She smirked. "Threatened some Norse viking dudes. Magnus may be calling you soon but it's cool, we told him you'd pay them back."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm concerned because I know you're not kidding. I'll deal with it later. In the meantime, I'm going to go to my cabin and try to get Max to turn back into a human." I began to walk towards the cabin but suddenly turned around as I remembered something. "Casey, Mom and Dad are alive. I had a demigod dream. I saw Mom and Dad, and I heard Piper and Leo."

Casey's hand went up to her mouth. "Where were they, are they ok?"

I closed my eyes. "They're alive, that's all that matters. But I don't know for how much longer. I'll talk to you about it later," I said. She frowned impatiently but I had already left.

It only took Max a few minutes to turn back. He shuddered as if he was cold. "I don't like doing that."

"But you did do it! I'm so proud of you!"

He smiled. "Thanks, Jase. What was that dream you had?"

I sighed and sat down on the bed. "I only saw my parents. They were in this strange set up. Dad was under this giant rock and mom was holding the rock up, and mom was trapped in a bubble that dad was making to keep her alive because there was poison in the water around her. I tried to call out. Dad saw me, I know he saw me. I heard Piper and Leo, but not the others. I assume they'd sound a little more upset if the others were dead, so I think they're still alive. They have to be."

Max nodded, looking hopeful. I knew he was hoping for better news. News I couldn't provide.

"You're right. At least they're alive, that's the best news we've gotten. We have to keep going Jase, if we give up hope now we've got nothing," he comforted. I nodded. He was right.

"I should go check on Charlie, see if he's started the repairs," I said.

"I'll go tell the others about your dream, they could use the good news." He got up and left, no doubt headed to the dining room where the others had gathered for lunch. I headed for the control room to find Charlie. When I found him, he was sitting on the table in his dad's workshop, turning his hammer around in his hands.

"Leo's alive, Charlie." I knew exactly what he was thinking. Charlie didn't respond. "I had a dream, most demigods have them-,"

"Everybody has dreams. That doesn't mean anything," he said glumly.

"Demigod dreams are different. Usually, it's like a vision. They show us what has happened, what is happening, or what will happen. Sometimes they let us communicate with gods or other demigods."

He huffed. "Sounds fun. So what was your about?" His gaze still didn't leave the hammer in his hands.

"Saw my parents. Where they were trapped, but they were alive. I heard my aunt yelling at Leo, and he responded. He's alive."


	15. The Goblet

Charlie got to work quickly. It seemed like he used it as an excuse to be by himself. He figured out how to Argo worked and apparently he spoke metal dragon as well. Many times I had walked in on him having a conversation with the dashboard's head. And most of those times, he stared at me as if I were intruding on a private moment.

I'd briefed the others on what happened while we were away and told them about the dream. We knew for sure that at least four of them were alive, but we still didn't know about the Zhangs or Jason.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

Charlie shrugged. "Like an idiot," he said. "I feel like there's nothing I can do. We have this whole city to search, where are we supposed to find some stupid godly goblet of fire?" He began cursing under his breath.

"You've read Harry Potter?" I asked, dismissing the rest of what he'd said.

He looked up as if that were the last thing on his mind. "No, but I watched the movies."

I smiled. "My parents brought me here when I was young, to the Harry Potter world. I got to see inside the castle. It was amazing," I remembered.

Charlie chuckled. "Did you put your name in the goblet of fire?" he joked. I laughed for what seemed like the first time in ages.

"Wait, Charlie, the goblet." I grabbed his arm in my realization.

"What about it?"

"Charlie, the _goblet_!" I jumped up and ran to dining area to find the others.

"What are you talking about?!" Charlie yelled, running after me. I burst into the dining hall where the others were having breakfast.

"Casey, I think I know where the goblet is!"

Charlie ran into me as I stopped. "Oh, you mean," he stopped talking as he silently jumped up and down with his mouth open.

"It's perfect! The most famous goblet in Orlando!"

"What are you talking about?" Casey interrupted. Her face was getting red with frustration.

"The Goblet of Fire!" I said. They didn't get the connection.

"What does this have to do with Harry Potter?" Nico asked.

"Gods guys, isn't it obvious? Harry Potter world is a giant theme park here in Orlando. It has rides that show you the inside of the castle and Gringotts and all the other places from Harry Potter. In one of the rides that goes through the castle, you pass a giant showcase with the Goblet of fire inside. The goblet is set up in a way to draw attention. It's in a giant protective case with lights shining on it in all directions. It's perfect!" I explained.

"Oh my gods, Jase you're right!" Casey agreed.

Nico glanced at his watch and sent a pointed look towards Will. Will nodded at their silent conversation. "We should go soon. It's the beginning of summer, the place is going to be packed. If we leave now we should get to the ride Jase is talking about in a reasonable time," Will noted. I nodded in agreement.

"Let's go. Will, can you stay here with the kids?" I asked. Will saluted me and quickly kissed Nico before telling us to be careful and leaving to find Adora. Oscar was still sleeping in my room. I grabbed my go bag (mostly full of medical supplies) and sat on the boat's railing to wait for the others. Charlie joined me a moment later.

"What if we get this goblet back, and there's just another quest. What if they just use our hysteria to get us to keep doing stuff for them?" he asked.

"I won't let them. We get him this goblet and we go to Greece. Dionysus offered us something in return for getting his wine goblet back. He said he'd give us something that would help," I promised.

"Yeah, and when do we get that?"

"We already have. Why do you think you crashed onto our ship in a ball of fire?" I hinted.

Charlie's unbelieving eyes went wide. "Wait, how am _I_ the help? I didn't even know about this world!" he protested.

"Charlie, you stopped Buffard from attacking us, learned to drive an ancient Greek warship _and_ fixed it, and helped us bring the Celestial bronze back to the ship."

"But I was completely useless with that creepy monster thing."

"You made a good distraction?" I offered. Charlie laughed. The others joined us and we headed off towards the theme park. Usually we traveled in groups of three, but we were going to split up once we got to the park. There were two rides that had the Goblet of Fire in them, and they were on opposite sides of the park. Charlie, Max, and Casey were going one way while the twins, Nico, and I went the other. Nico had pick pocketed a few people of their tickets to get us in and I paid for the rest.

The lines to get into the rides were long, up to two hours and maybe more. My ADHD was driving me insane and I had to get out of line multiple times to go to the bathroom of get a drink or just to stretch my legs. By the time we reached the front of the line, I couldn't wait for it to be over. At least when fighting monsters I had something to do.

"So how are we going to get the goblet? If we're on a ride, how will we get access to it?" Jonathan asked.

"Well, we'll have to get out of the ride. They check out seats but if we use the mist we may be able to get by that. I'd start praying to Hecate."

(In answer to the question, "How often do I update? I update daily. Also, I love your guys' ideas and feedback! If you have any more questions, I'd be glad to answer!)


	16. A Nice Ride

There were only a few people in front of us now. I bowed my head and closed my eyes.

 _Hecate_ , I thought. _We need your help. Just this small thing, to navigate the mist. We need to do this to get the Seven. I will pay your price. Me personally, nobody else. Just this once, I am asking for your help._

I opened my eyes as we were called forward. There were four people per cart so we had one to ourselves. Everybody else secured their seats, but we didn't. I did the sign of horns with my hand, a greek good luck symbol similar to crossing your fingers. The park officer walked by our cart and glanced at our seats, then walked away without another word.

 _Thank you._

The ride took off and I held tight to the seat so I wouldn't fall off. We went through a few loops and quick turns until it evened out for a moment. I took my chance and jumped from the ride. The others followed suit. This part of the ride was dementors, large black cloaked figures. They were all machines, but freaky nonetheless. Every once in awhile one would lunge forward and Jon would jump. Nico calmly turned towards each one and glared as if it were annoying him.

"How much further?" Kat asked after she ducked behind one to the cloaked figures to avoid being seen by riders.

"I think we're close. It should be just around the corner. But we're going to have to hurry, there's nothing to hide behind there and the park police will find out pretty quickly. So we get the goblet and we run. If we get split up, go straight to the Argo. If you can't, give us a sign and we'll find you," I said.

Jonathan raised his hand as if in school. "What kind of sign?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Probably an explosion. Just make a big boom."

Kat smirked and elbowed her brother, then we were off. I tried to be sneaky but there wasn't really a point. There was nowhere to hide. We were in a stone corridor next to the track that was made to look like a hallways from Hogwarts. The giant showcase was about six feet tall, just high enough for me to reach it.

"How do we break it?" Jonathan asked.

Kat smiled and raised her sword. "Imperial gold," she answered. She swung at the case and it cracked open like a can.

"I thought it was made of bulletproof glass?" Nico wondered out loud.

"Plastic is thicker, harder to break," I explained.

"Johnny, stick your skinny little arm in there and grab it," Kat said. Only Kat could get away with calling him Johnny. Jonathan glared at his sister but did as he was told. As soon as he reached inside, alarms went off.

"Grace, now!" Nico yelled. Jon yanked the goblet from the case and threw it at me, and I stuffed it in my bag. We ran towards the exit. There was a crowd of people at the exit, all talking to the park workers about a group of kids running around the ride.

"I take that as a sign that we should go," Jonathan said. I nodded in agreement.

"That's them!" A random woman yelled, pointing at us.

"Yep, run!"

So we bolted. Kat and Jon ran towards one of the park's exits and Nico ran in the other, so I ran towards the other side of the park where Casey, Max, and Charlie were. Once I got a reasonable distance away from the officers who were chasing me, I slowed my pace. I didn't want to seem suspicious. It took me a good fifteen minutes to get to the other side of the park and when I did, it took me another ten minutes to find the others.

"Ok but what if we just stopped real quick in the candy store, like two minutes! Max, you're on my side, right?" I heard Charlie first. I came up behind them and grasped Max's shoulder.

"Sorry Chuck, but we have to go. Now."

Max jumped. "Jase! Give a guy some warning!" he said.

"Ok," I answered. "Warning, we have to go. The security guards are after us. The twins and Nico already took of towards the exits and I suggest we follow suit."

"You hurt?" Casey asked. I shook my head and she added, "Do you have the goblet?"

"Yep. And just by holding it, I can tell you that it definitely isn't a mortal prop. I can feel the godly energy just by being near it. You guys good?"

Max nodded. "We're fine, nothing bad happened except a kid puked on Charlie," he said. I looked over and noticed that Charlie was wearing a touristy shirt with Disney characters on it. I rolled my eyes and took my sister's hand, pulling the group away, smirking playfully at the grandson of Hephaestus.

"Are the others out already?" Casey asked.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I told them to make an explosion or something if they were stuck and so far I haven't heard any explosions. The twins were closest to an exit so I'm assuming they're out by now. If Nico was caught he would have shadow traveled so he's probably out too."

"So," Charlie started. "I guess this means we can't stop at Honeydukes?"


	17. A Literal Push

We made haste back to the Argo. Will and Nico were sitting at the bow waiting for us.

"You're back!" Will called.

"I was looking for an explosion," Nico added.

"Ha ha. Somebody should pray to Dionysus, tell him we have his goblet. Charlie, can you change the course to Greece? The coordinates are sitting in the control room," I said. Charlie nodded and dashed off. Will had knelt his head in prayer. When no answer came, he looked to me. I sighed and lifted my arms.

"I have your wine goblet, Mr. D!" I yelled, using the name I knew he didn't like. "Come and get it before I throw it overboard!"

With a flash of light, Dionysus appeared on the deck with crossed arms. He held out his hand and I tossed him the goblet.

"Great, you didn't die. Because you brought my goblet back so quickly I guess I'll give you a push towards Greece. That is where you are going, correct?"

I frowned at him. "Yes."

Dionysus smirked, then winked at me. He raised his cloak over his eyes and we turned away. When we looked back, he was gone.

"Glad that's taken care of. What do you think he meant by a push towards Greece?"

Nobody got a chance to answer, because we were suddenly launched forward. I was thrown from my feet and I had to grab the mast to keep from flying off the side. Will and Nico were hanging onto each other with one hand each on the railing. I was losing my grip. I clenched my teeth in strain.

Finally, the boat calmed and nearly came to a stop. I let go of the mast and collapsed onto the deck.

"Well Jase, to answer your question, I think _that_ was what he meant," Will said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, a literal push. We'd better check on the others, see if they're ok. Want to go to the engine room, see where we are?" I asked. Nico and Will nodded and left. I followed them but branched off to the bedrooms. I first went to Adora's room. I opened the door and found her sitting on the bed and rubbing her head.

"Hey kiddo, you ok?" I asked, sitting next to her and wrapping my arm around her shoulder.

"I hit my head," she said. I parted her hair to look at the small bump on her scalp. I stood up and got the ambrosia from her dresser.

"Here," I said. "You should go find Uncle Will and get an ice pack. I'm going to check on Oscar, ok?"

She nodded. "Ok Jasey." She stood up and put on her fuzzy orange slippers then headed down the hall. I went to my room next, where I found Kat cradling Oscar. I sat down and took him from her.

"You two ok?"

She nodded. "Yeah, he didn't even wake up. When the rush started I was able to brace myself against the wall with Oscar," she said. I smiled and brushed my little brother's hair back.

"Osi sleeps through everything. Mom said she wishes that all of us were like him," I whispered, mostly to myself. Kat nodded and watched us.

"Jase, are you ok?" she asked.  
I've had about 3 hours of sleep since my parents went missing, my wounds from earlier hadn't been properly tended to, and my family was still missing. I smiled at Kat. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'm going to check in with the others, maybe get Oscar some food while I'm at it."

She nodded and I left still holding Oscar. He was beginning to wake up anyway, might as well get him some food. I went to the kitchen first and grabbed his bottle from the fridge, then headed to the control room. Charlie was sitting on the floor covered in grease, fiddling with the dashboard.

"Charlie, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Putting the last of the celestial bronze in place. What was that rush thing? I think it damaged the landing gear, I wasn't able to bring them back up in time. It's ok, but we'll have a rocky landing when we reach Greece." he explained.

"Speaking of," I said. "Where are we?"

Charlie stopped fiddling to look up at the council. "Uhh, close to Greece. Looks like we're only about a day away? Damn, that was one hell of a boost."

I nodded. "Yeah. Too bad he didn't make sure everybody was off deck. Nico and Will were nearly swept overboard."

"They ok?" he asked, looking up for the first time.

I nodded again and assured him, "Yeah, they're good. So are the others. A day away, you say? Anything coming up, monsters, dolphin pirates, gods?"

Charlie shrugged. "Not that I can see, but my radars need time to catch up with the sudden geographic change."

"Ok, tell me if there are any changes," I ordered.

"Will do," he saluted.

"Also, dinner in half an hour. You need to eat," I added. He only shrugged.


	18. As Usual

I went to bed early that night. I had a few bites of my dinner and tucked Adora in then I went to bed. I had hoped for no dreams, but I was never that lucky. Of course.

 _It was dark. My feet were heart and I could taste blood in my mouth. Beneath my fingers, something was moving. It felt like skin. Sticky, bloody._

" _Jason we're coming, we're coming." The eerie voice sent a chill down my spine. I tried to stand but I couldn't feel my legs, I could see they weren't moving. My vision was blurry._

" _We're coming, Jason. We're coming, we're coming." Fear spiked through my heart and I tried to drag myself away. A wispy white figure appeared beside me, its face a mere inch from my own. "We're coming, we're always coming. We're coming, Jason."_

 _I wanted to run, to fight, but something kept me in place. "What did you do with him!" I felt myself screaming, sending pain scorching through my throat. But who was I looking for?_

" _He's gone, Jason. And we're coming for you, we're coming." It reached it's hand forward, straight through my chest. I suddenly felt so cold, to the point where I couldn't feel at all. I was scared, terrified. I wanted to scream or to cry out but there was nothing to do. Whatever creature was there stroked my cheek with its other hand._

" _We're here."_

I woke up gasping for breath. I clutched my blanket desperately as if it would save me from what'd I seen. I rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath. I gulped down the glass of water on my bedside. I glanced at my watch and saw that is was about 5:15 in the morning. Too late to go back to bed now. I got out of bed and threw on a sweatshirt and shoes. I tried to be silent as to not wake anybody but my loud ragged breathing was a dead give-away for any of the light sleepers. I clasped a hand over my mouth until I emerged onto the deck. I grasped the railing and looked over the edge. The sea looked so inviting. I glanced back at the dim light coming from the cabin. The boat wasn't going very fast. If I attached a rope to the bottom of the boat I wouldn't lose track of it. I needed to get away from everything in my mind. I grabbed a rope from the pile next to the canons and tied it to one of the railings, then I jumped. I wrapped the rope around my left hand and switched into a diving position.

The water was cool. It washed past my face and I instantly felt better. It calmed me. I smiled and waved my hand through the water. Fish flocked at my fingertips. The coral beneath me sparkled against the rising sun and jellyfish swarmed past me in schools. I closed my eyes and swam gently, letting the rope tied to the ship above guide me. I must have stayed there for an hour at least, maybe more. I wasn't asleep, but I didn't open my eyes. I knew I should have been making a plan or going over all that we know, but I didn't. I needed this time just to sit and be without my thoughts. When I slept, I had dreams and dreams were not something I looked forward to. I didn't want to think about my parents or the rest of my family. I loved them, but I didn't want to think of them right now. It hurt too much.

An explosion rocked me from my meditation. I lost my grip on the rope. It was dark below water, so I couldn't see it. I kicked up from the sand and swam fast as I could towards the surface. What I saw nearly convinced me I was still dreaming.

The Argo was about twenty feet away but I knew I could catch up fairly quickly. It was the giant turtle island that concerned me.

"Sciron?" I muttered in confusion. I'd heard this story many times. It was Max's favorite, so Frank told it every year for the new campers. Despite his smelly socks, I knew Sciron to still be a very dangerous man. I thought he'd been eaten by his turtle? Guess not. I swam quickly towards the ship but tried to be stealthy as not to alert the giant sea turtle or its master.

The guy was on the deck of the Argo. He had long greasy black hair. From where I was, he looked like some kind of dystopian cowboy pirate. I quickly took off my glasses and rinsed them in the ocean water before putting them back on. The guy had the same red bandana Frank talked about but now he was wearing it on his head like a headband to keep his hair back instead of covering his face. He wasn't looking at me. He didn't even suspect that I was there. Neither did his turtle, who was too busy eating the island next to our ship. I got closer so I could see what was happening on board.

"And with that, I shall take all your valuables and leave you be on your journey! So, give it all to me and I shall be on my way," he said confidently. Nico was in the lead and Kat stood tall behind him. Will must have been hiding in the cabin with the kids.

"Well, sorry but we don't have any valuables. We've got old laundry and a few hammers and wrenches, but nothing of actual value. We just spent all our money in Orlando," Nico said casually.

Sciron frowned. "Well, that's unfortunate. Guess I'll have to take something else," he considered.

Nico frowned. "Like what? We don't have anything of value, I just told you that," he sassed.

I narrowed my eyes as Sciron told them his plan. "You'd be surprised at what monsters will pay for a nice demigod hide these days."

I saw Max squirm uncomfortably. Casey stepped up, ignoring Nico trying to push her away. "What did you do to him?" she cursed, anger weaving through her words. I had a flashback to my dream, but pushed it aside.

"With who? I haven't done anything to you yet!" he protested

"Where is Jason?" She sounded like she was trying to threaten him Sciron looked nearly as confused as Casey did angry.

"Jason? The blonde guy with the glasses? Oh this is rich. I kicked that guy off the cliff," he said casually. I frowned, because I knew he didn't kick me off a cliff. "But I would love to do it again, kill him for real this time."

That's when I realized that he wasn't talking about me. He was talking about the other Jason, Jason Grace. For the moment, he thought I was my uncle. I used the water to lift myself from the water and onto the railing.

"You called?" I asked, forcing a smile onto my face. Casey nearly melted. She shook her head, warning me that she was going kill me when this is over. I nodded back.

"Jason," Sciron growled. I didn't look much about my uncle, but apparently after being eaten by a turtle and waiting for revenge for so many years, he was willing to believe I was anybody I said I was.

"Long time no see! How are you still alive? Went through the digestion system I assume." I didn't sound much like my uncle. Jason was much more, Roman. I sounded more like my father, but Sciron never got to meet him. The thought made me angry because it made me remember where my parents were when Jason had met Sciron.

"It's really your partner I want, the little golden eyed one. I assume she's dead?"

Max clenched his fists. I tilted my head to the side to warn him to stay put. Nico set a hand in his shoulder, the same anger shining dangerously in his eyes. Sciron's arrow was pointed at Kat's heart; we couldn't take any chances.

"It must have been hard," Jonathan said. He raised his hands to chest level and took slow steps forward.

"What are you talking about? Stay back or I shoot!"

"Waiting so long. The need for revenge. It must make you so angry. So fueled by your rage, your embarrassment. How long have you been searching for this ship? For those who bested you in the past?" Charmspeak was laced into Jon's words, but I feared it was only making him angrier. I gave Jonathan a pointed look but he just smiled reassuringly. I trusted him.

"Yes. My enmity is controlling, and I shall not rest until he pays!" Sciron sounded much angrier before. He turned around and trained his bow on me instead. "Jason you will pay for what you have done to me, you will pay for your deeds!"

I was still wearing my pajamas and in my haste to get outside, I'd forgotten to grab my sword. I rarely forgot my sword. But I was panicked, I hadn't thought to bring it with me. I wasn't wearing any armor and I wasn't sure I would be able to get out of the way of Sciron let the arrow loose.

"I would be more careful, Sciron. You remember there were more with me, don't you?" I hinted. Sciron frowned but didn't speak. "They're here. Waiting. They have you surrounded. One wrong move and your fate will be worse than that of your turtles bowels," I warned. He didn't lower his bow. Instead, he pulled the string tight. I got ready.

"You shall pay for what you did to me, Jason!" Then he fired.


	19. i don't die Yet

I didn't die, if that's what you were thinking. I noticed him pulling the string back and as soon as it reached his cheek, I let myself fall backwards. It was the perfect moment so that when he shot the arrow, it sailed right over my head. From the boat, it still looked like I'd been shot. I clapped myself on the back for my superior acting skills.

"JASE!" Somebody yelled. I threw up a little water cannon to let the others know I was alright, but not to alert Sciron.

"Great. Now that that's taken care of, who wants to go first?"

I peaked over the edge of the boat. Sciron had taken out a large fisherman's knife. Charlie made eye contact with Jonathan and swallowed nervously.

"Please, kill me first! I cannot stand to live in such fear any longer! To see what you will do put the fear of god in me. Your almighty ways scare me, I must die before it gets any worse!" he dramatically pleaded. It was obvious he was playing, but what was his angle? Sciron smirked and beckoned him forward. I was just about to jump onto the deck, but apparently Charlie had other plans. He burst into fire the second Sciron grabbed him.

The evil demigod screamed in anguish and ran around the ship. I hauled myself on board and he spotted me. His screams of pain turned into ones of anger and he ran towards me. As he was trying to tackle me, Nico stuck his foot out. Sciron simply tripped and fell over the edge of the boat. It was a funny sight, really. In an ironic twist, his screams were stopped when he landed in the open mouth of his giant island turtle. Again.

"No!" he shouted. "Noooo!"

Casey ran up to me and slapped me in the face, then she gave me a hug. "You brainatic idiot! Do you know how worried we were?"

I did, but I only shrugged. "Sorry Cas, I just needed to clear my head." Her gaze softened. "Where are the kids?" I asked.

She stuck her thumb towards the cabins. "Oscar's in a supply closet with Will, Adora's hiding under her bed. I'm getting her now. We should reach Greece by the end of the day according to Charlie's calculations, so get ready. We don't have a plan yet, and we're going to need your help to make one."

I nodded as she headed off. Charlie walked past me and I grabbed his arm. "Charlie, that was really brave of you," I said.

Charlie smiled, "Like father like son, right?"

It was still early. Besides the Sciron incident, the day was pretty quiet. Charlie spent most of his time fixing the rest of the ship. I went back to my room and played with the kids for the day, taking a few breaks to check in with Charlie. Adora really missed our parents so I played games with her to try and keep her mind off of their disappearance. While the kids were napping, I went over Mom's documents on their last travel to the Doors of Death. I still didn't find anything helpful. That night I fell asleep at my desk. Oscar was on my bed and Jonathan must have come in later that night and tucked him in but he didn't wake me up. I'd gotten so little sleep the past few days, I needed the rest.

The next morning, I woke up late and groggy. I hadn't had any dreams the night before, thankfully. Casey knocked on the door twice before walking in. "Jase, can you come to the conference room? We're going to try and make a plan," she asked.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute. Have you seen my glasses?" I shuffled around a few papers and looked for my glasses. Casey raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "They're on my head, aren't they?"

She only nodded. I sighed and put them on. I stood up and walked to the conference room, not even bothering to put on my shoes.

"You're a mess," Katrina said

I rolled my eyes and sat down between Adora and Jonathan. Casey took Oscar who was gurgling on his teething toy. I noted that Charlie was gone and assumed he was still down in the engine room.

"Like I was saying, the cracks have got to be somewhere that it's been opened before, but there was more than one crack last time. There's the doors, but there was also the one that Percy and Annabeth…" Nico trailed off.

"I told Charlie to head to the doors, that's where most of the monsters got out last time," I changed the subject.

"Should we split up? One group go to the doors and the other group go there?" Katrina asked.

Jonathan shook his head to oppose his twin. "We've already seen how powerful these things are. I think we'd better stick together if want to have any chance at beating them."

I nodded in agreement and said, "Jon's right. The only times we've split up we've been attacked. Especially if we expect to be attacked, we're stronger together."

"I know, but if they're not at the doors of death then we have to travel all the way to where you parents fell in. Do we really have enough time for that?" Katrina asked. "And we're not even sure they're at either of those places."

"We won't do then any good if we're dead," I countered.

"I could go."

We all looked to Nico. He was twisted the skull ring around his finger, something he only did when he was stressed or nervous. Will raised his eyebrows and leaned forward.

"What?" he asked.

Nico shrugged and avoided his eyes. "I could go and check it out, see where they are," he answered.

Will scoffed, "No you can't."

"I have enough power to get there and back with a break or two," Nico was cut off by Will's glare.

"No, you cannot. I don't care if you have enough power to get there. These monsters were able to take the most powerful demigods in history, you're not walking straight to them," Will said.

Nico shook his head. "I'm not walking _straight_ anywhere." Then he seemed to realize he's made his joke out loud. "I'm just going to see if they're there. Plus, we don't have any other ideas, do we?"

"Nico, we'll come up with something else. We need to there when we fight, if you are captured you can't do that. It's too dangerous. We'll figure something out, we've still got awhile until we reach Greece," I said, not leaving any room for argument. I don't care what he said, we weren't losing Nico too.

We didn't get a chance to continue the conversation. Like usual, something happened.


	20. Ice Ice Baby

The boat came to a sudden stop. "What's going on?" Will wondered. I got up to ask Charlie what why we stopped. The ship started going in the opposite direction. I opened the door and shivered. It was cold.

"Charlie?" I called. The control room was empty, but it was covered in ice. "Oh Hades." I ran in the other direction, back towards the group.

"Jase, what's going on?" Kat was standing in the doorway about to go after me.

"Khione. Control room is covered in ice, not sure where Charlie is," I answered. Jonathan and Kat exchanged a glance, being reminded of their mother.

"If Khione knows who Charlie's parents are, she's going to kill him," Nico commented. Khione hated Leo. She sent him to Ogygia, but he ended up saving and marrying Calypso. If Khione finds that out, she's going to be pissed. I went to the deck to find him. It was the only open space on the ship, the best place for an ice goddess.

Charlie was on the deck with a sword to his neck. He saw me and smiled cheekily. "Sorry, Jase. I still don't know how to fight?"

I didn't reply to him. "Khione," I called. "What are you doing here? Your beef is not with us." I glanced over Charlie but he didn't look injured. Good.

She laughed shrilly. "You're a Jackson. Of course I have issues with you. I know the children of the child of Aphrodite are here as well. Bring them to me or I kill the small one," she said.

Charlie frowned. "I'm not that small!" he protested. She stared at him as if she were trying to figure something out. The deck door opened behind me and the others piled out.

"Get back!" I yelled. Khione frowned as Will tried to get everybody back inside and she shot a canon of ice forward. It hit me and I was knocked backwards. Then I began to freeze. It reminded me of the dream I'd had recently and I began to panic. I managed to calm myself down, but I still couldn't move. I was frozen in place, literally. Completely useless. Casey didn't look at me but her jaw clenched in anger. Khione rose her hand and snow flocked to her fingertips.

"Where are your brothers?" Katrina asked.

Khione grimaced. "They are weak!" she hissed.

Kat shrugged. "I don't know, I think they're ok." She got out her dagger and got into a fighting position. In retaliation, Khione shot another ray of ice, this one hitting Nico and turning him into ice.

"Nico!" Will screamed and ran to him, which resulted in him being turned into ice as well, his hand still reaching for Nico.

"Stop!" Jon shouted, standing beside his sister. Khione did stop, but only for a moment.

"So there's two of you? Won't your mother be so heartbroken when she's learned I've killed you both," Khione raised her hand to kill them but Kat threw her dagger. It pierced the goddesses arm and she cried out in pain and annoyance. "You menace!" She tried to freeze Adora, but Casey pushed her out of the way and took the brunt of the attack. I should have left them at Camp. What kind of idiot was I to think my little siblings would be safer with me? Oscar was with Max, who was trying to hide behind the group. I hadn't even been in the fight and I was already useless.

"But then we wouldn't die painfully!" Jonathan blurted. Khione looked at him in interest. "Do you know where we're going?"

"I don't exactly _care_ where you're going," she answered. Charlie looked frantically towards the twins, begging them to do something.

"We're going to the doors of the death to fight Tartarus's worst monsters. It's not very likely we're going to win. We're probably going to die, slowly and painfully," Jon said. He was using charmspeak, so I nearly believed him myself. I knew he was trying to get rid of Khione, but he was making the others nervous. "If you let us go, then you won't have to do the work of killing us."

Khione was knocked back to her senses by this. "I want to be the one to kill you! I want the child of Aphrodite to suffer!"

"She won't be alive to know you've killed us if you don't let us go!" Jon insisted. Khione paused, contemplating this. Kat made faces at Charlie to get him it understand something, but it wasn't working.

"She will see it in the afterlife," Khione insisted. She raised her hands for a final strike when Kat suddenly yelled,

"FLAME ON!"

Charlie, whether in fear or because he actually listened, burst into flames. He flailed his arms and screamed. Not only did he injure the goddess with his fire, he also scared the Hades out of her. Charlies only defensive mechanisms were literally sarcasm and bursting into fire. Kat took this opportunity to attack. Jon tossed her his dagger and she plunged it forward with deadly accuracy. It landed smack dab in the middle of Khione's chest. She staggered back and gasped, the snow around her evaporating. She cursed us a couple more times. "You will feel the cold, you will feel the wrath of _my_ cold!" Then she melted into a puddle on the deck, no doubt to return to her castle and heal.

 _Your price has been paid._ Said Hecate's voice in my head.

 _I said that_ I _would pay the price! Me personally!_ I protested.

 _A price for you is to watch those you care for in peril. I have used the power you would have used in this fight to serve myself._

Then she was gone. Charlie had begun melting the others, starting with me. Once I was free, he began working on Will and Nico.

"I'm sorry," I said to Casey, who had approached me.

"What for? It's not your fault Khione froze you," she replied.

"It's my fault she came. I told Hecate I would pay her price for covering us with the mist in Orlando. She said my only price would be to watch those I care for in peril. She must have tipped Khione off."

Casey shook her head. "Still not your fault, Jase. This is obviously not what you had in mind when you said you'd pay a price."

I shook my head. "Cas, I hate being that helpless. I didn't do anything to help, I'm sorry."

She hugged me, resting her head on my shoulder. "It's ok. We handled it, right? We're all ok," she comforted. I smiled and patted her head.

"I think something's sending the monsters after us. We've been attacked once a day like clockwork, something must be targeting us," I told her, changing the subject.

She shrugged. "Yeah, but we _are_ the Seven's descendants. Plus, there are ten of us here, we've got a pretty strong scent," she countered. She was probably right. I sighed and headed to the control room, I wanted to talk to Charlie.


	21. The Power of Leo

Charlie was mopping water off the floor when I entered.

"Hey Chuck," I greeted. He didn't bother looking up.

"This lady is a mess. Look at this! The entire floor is soaked!" he cried, nearly throwing his mop. I laughed and offered a hand. I began wiping off the circuit board.

"How are we on trajectory?" I asked.

He groaned and motioned towards a panel in front of me. "We lost about half a day. I think we might be able to make it up pretty quickly if I make a few adjustments," he stopped talking and began fiddling with a beautiful crystal. It was small, but it seemed to mean a lot to Charlie.

"What's that?" I asked. Charlie smiled as he held the crystal.

"My mom said it came from her home, where she lived before my dad came. She said that he came and rescued her and they flew away into the sunset, like in the fairytales," he said wistfully.

"It must have come from Ogygia. From what I've heard about your dad, I guess he must have used it as a beacon to find Calypso," I said. Charlie's smile grew weaker.

"I get why they didn't tell me," he said. I went quiet and let him talk. "They gave me this when I was a baby, Dad said with it I would never be lost. Sometimes I'd wake up and he'd be gone, and Mom would tell me he had a job. But he worked at the garage under the house. I never thought about it until now. I saw things, monsters I guess, but I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me. I think they almost told me once, but then Dad got hurt and they didn't. They were always so careful to keep me in the dark. I was angry at first, but now I just miss them. They had a whole nother life that I knew nothing about, and now Dad's been taken." He looked down like he wanted to cry, but he didn't.

"My mom was ran away when she was just a little kid," I spoke softly. "Her family was rude to her, they didn't care. She was just too different for them. Camp Half Blood was her home. When she was twelve, she met my dad. He didn't know anything about this world. When he got to Camp, his mother was kidnapped by a monster. They went through Hades realm, to get her back. Eventually, they defeated Kronos. Together, they survived the Labyrinth and so many other things that should have killed them before they were even sixteen.

"Then, they finally got together. They were dating for a few months when Hera kidnapped my dad and stole his memories, then stuck him in the Roman camp. They reunite months later and the Prophecy of Seven got together. As a team, they set off to defeat Gaea, who was trying to wake and kill everybody. My mom beat Arachne, but was pulled into the deepest pit of hell, where even Gods don't dare speak of. My dad jumped in after her," I went quiet as I spoke of Tartarus. My parents were still suffering from that wretched place. I felt sorrow just thinking about it.

"What happened?" Charlie whispered.

"They survived. They made it through Tartarus, then them and the rest of the Seven closed the Doors of the Death. They went back to Camp Half Blood and lead the battle against Gaea and her monsters. Leo, your dad, defeated her. He died in the process. He didn't stay dead though, which we now know was because he had something called the physician's cure. Finally, my parents were able to settle down. They went to college. Then they got a house, and had me. They tried to give us a normal life while still preparing us for the real world," I said.

Charlie smiled. "What are they like?" he asked.

"They're amazing. My dad is basically a fifth child. He sneaks out of bed at night to steal cookies and gets into pillow fights with us kids. He's the greatest dad. Casey was bullied by some kids in sixth grade and Dad made their bathrooms explode. He's got black hair, green eyes. He usually wears longer shirts unless he's at camp because he's covered in scars from Tartarus. A couple weeks ago I got sick and couldn't go to school, so he took my backpack and homework and went to school in my place. He pretended to be me, and ended up getting kicked out of the school and had to call my mom to bail him out," I laughed as I thought about it.

Charlie chuckled. "He sounds a lot like my dad," he said. "What about your mom?"

"My mom, she's amazing. She works full time as the CEO and founder of the biggest architecture on this side of the country. She's brilliant. Despite working so much, she comes home before school is out and makes us a snack for when we get home, then she'll help us do our homework and do the rest of her work from home. She's an amazing listener. She's so polite, but if somebody touched one us or Dad, she'll probably kill them," I joked, but it was actually pretty likely. "I miss them," I added.

Charlie nodded. After a moment of silence, he spoke. "I bet my mom is worried sick. First, Dad takes off and freaking out about his best friends, and then I go missing. She doesn't know where I am, that I'm safe. I don't even know the threat my dad is facing, but I find myself not caring. All I want to do is find him. I've been raised to believe that as long as my Dad was there, nothing could go wrong. I know that's not true, but part of me still believes it. But we can get them back, right?"

I smiled. "Right." He went back to fiddling with his necklace. I, of course, ruined the moment. "Wait, Charlie, that necklace!"

"What about it?"

"Leo used it to find Ogygia again. They gave it to you and said you would never be lost if you had it, which must mean it's somehow connected to them. If we can figure out how, then we can use it to find Leo and the others!"

Charlie looked doubtful. "But what if it's just sentimental? How did Dad even use it?"

I shrugged. "Not sure, only he knows. But at this point, we need it to work. We don't know where to go."

He nodded in understanding but looked doubtful. "Yeah. I'll work on it."


	22. A Plan

"Jase! Jase!" I was shaken awake. Charlie was urgently whispering my name in attempt to wake me.

"What? I'm awake! What?" I groggily swatted him away.

"It works! We can find them!" he confessed. I jumped up. He had a crazed smile. In his hand was his mother's crystal, but Charlie had put it in some sort of weird looking device. It was glowing.

"What is it? Are you sure?"

He pulled me out of bed and towards the control room. There was a rolled out blanket and pillow on the floor but it didn't look like it had been used. The circuit board was a mess. Wires were sticking out everywhere. Charlie began attaching half of them to the device of his hands.

"You were right. Dad used it to find my mom, but he _didn't_ use it to track Ogygia! It was used to track my mom. Because I have half of her DNA, it worked to track me to. But this is only half the crystal, that's why it's so small. He has the other half so he can track me, but I think I've figured out how to reverse it so we can find him. It lights up when we're going in the right direction. I've hooked it up so the dragon, he said his name is Fetus, can use it. Now, we're going in the perfect direction. If we don't stop, we should be there by noon tomorrow, maybe earlier," Charlie explained.

I grinned and pulled him in for a hug. "Charlie, you did it!"

He looked proudly at the crudely made device. "Now that I've woken you up and got you excited, you should get to sleep. We've got a long day tomorrow. When morning comes, we should start packing up and getting ready to go because I'm not sure exactly when we'll get there," he advised.

"You should too. Sitting up and staring at that crystal isn't going to make us go faster. Go to bed," I shot back. He smiled and waved me off.

I went back to my cabin with a smile on my face. I stayed silent as not to wake Oscar. Getting a notebook out, I turned on my desk lamp and got to work. We knew how Mom and Dad were trapped, which gave us an advantage. I wrote that down, making a quick sketch. If I could hold up the water to keep Mom alive, then dad might have a chance to get loose and fight. But could I keep Mom safe for that long? If I could get a message to my dad, then we'd be able to control the poison together and free my mom. I wrote that down too. I wrote down everything I could think of until eventually I feel asleep.

"Jase, you gotta stop doing this to yourself" Jonathan lectured, waking me. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and put on my glasses.

"What time is it?" I yawned.

"Nearly eight," Jon answered. "Figured I'd let you sleep in."

I jumped out of my chair and grabbed my notebook. "Gather the others! We have good news," I smiled at him and ran down the hall to the where Charlie probably was. He was conked out on the circuit board with one hand on the crystal. He looked so peaceful, I almost didn't wake him.

"Morning sunshine!" I said loudly.

Charlie rolled over, nearly falling out of his chair. "Five more minutes!" he pleased. I rolled my eyes.

"Charlie."

He whipped his head up and fell off his chair. "I'm up, I'm up!" he called, waving his arm in the air. I smiled and offered him a hand up.

"Have you told them yet?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet. I told Jonathan to gather everybody. Knowing them, they're probably in the dining hall for breakfast. Max found our magical dishes the other day, we don't have to stop for food anymore."

"Magical dishes?" he asked as we walked towards the dining hall.

"Oh, you're going to love them. They're enchanted in a way that whatever food you think of will appear on your plate."

"Are you kidding? Omg I need it!"

I laughed and opened the door for him. Like I'd thought, the others were eating breakfast.

"Charlie's made a discovery, so I need all of you to pay close attention. Charlie?" I stepped aside for Charlie to explain his findings.

He took a deep breath. "Ok, so, when my dad left Ogygia, he took a crystal with him so he could find it again. Turns out, the crystal tracked my mom, not the island. Because I have her DNA, my dad split the crystal in half so he can track me if I ever got lost or something. Thanks to Jase's suggestion, I was able to reverse it. I've hooked the crystal to the Fetus and put it to work," he said quickly.

"We've found a way to track down Leo and the others, we should be there by lunch," I reworded.

"We found them?" Max verified. Charlie nodded. Max, in turn, pushed his chair back and left the room. I went after him.

"Max!" I called as I began to catch up. He looked back but he didn't slow down.

"What? We need to get ready!"

"Slow down, it's only eight in the morning."

He looked at me and I realized that he was terrified. "Max, what's wrong?"

He slowed to a stop. "Jase, your dream," he paused. "You didn't see my parents. You don't know if they were there" he explained.

"Max, stop." I held him by the shoulders. "Just stop. Don't think about it, stop freaking out about it. We're going to save them, all of them. Go get your armor ready, and make sure to pack ambrosia. When you're done packing, meet back in the conference room so we can go over the plan."

He took a deep breath, "Ok, ok. I'll be there in a bit." He gave me a half smile and disappeared into his room.


	23. Almost There

"So far, all we know is how Percy and Annabeth are positioned," Casey was explaining the plan and appointing rolls. "Jase will take control of the water Percy is controlling, which will allow Percy to help Annabeth get out of the water. Kat will try and keep the rock above Percy in the air long enough for him to escape, which will be up to Max. Max, before we leave, will transform into a mouse or some kind of other small creature so he can cut through Percy's bonds. We don't know how to free the others, but we'll figure that out when we get there," she said.

I couldn't tell what everybody was feeling. They looked determined, scared. But they also looked eager, as if they couldn't wait for us to arrive. Everybody missed the Seven, and I just hoped that we wouldn't blow the whole operation because we are too desperate to get them back.

"Do we have anything else to go over? I know it's not much of a plan, but it's all we've got," I didn't mean to sound demeaning, but it wasn't much. What we were about to do was dangerous and it wasn't likely we'd all make it back, especially if the Seven were used as hostages. But we had to do something, we had to get them back. Nobody responded to me, so I gave a curt nod and left the room. I went to the armory to get ready.

"Your left strap is a little loose," Casey noted. I tried to look over my shoulder at the chestplate straps. She fixed it for me. "Jase, I'm worried. I can't wait to get out there and fight, I feel like I need to kill something," she said.

"I know that feeling. Hopefully, you'll be able to gank the monsters that took our parents. That feeling will go away. It's just what happens when somebody you love is in danger, you get angry," I tried to explain.

Casey shrugged and bent her head. "I know, but that's just the thing. We're leaving to save the people we love, but by doing so we're putting more in danger. What if somebody dies? Like you, it would be chaos."

"Casey, I'm not going to die," I promised, a joking smile on my face.

"But imagine if you did. Just think about it. We'd be a mess. Do you realize how much mom and dad depend on you? And what if something happens to Nico? Or Will? Or Kat or Jon or Max?" She was beginning to hyperventilate.

I took her by the shoulders and hugged her. "Cas, it's going to be alright. I won't let anybody die, I promise you that. Tonight, we'll all be together again and we'll be able to have dinner as a family."

"Promise?" she mumbled into my chest.

"Of course. But you'll owe me fifteen drachmas, if we can kill everything before dinner. We won't even need a plan!" I joked. "It's a curse, planning is in my nature!"

"Curse you, jerk! _I'd_ curse you to have to talk to your enemy instead of just killing. Then maybe you'll understand why we need to talk things out instead of just killing stuff," Casey huffed.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Can you imagine? Me, sitting down and having a nice peaceful conversation with a monster. Maybe we'd have tea!"

"Can you see a monster sitting down to talk?" she laughed at the thought.

"Not willingly!"

I'd helped Casey with her armor when Adora found me.

"Jasey," she called.

I turned around and smiled at her. "What's up, kiddo?"

"Where are you going?"

I wasn't sure exactly what to say. I didn't want to tell her we'd found them, just in case things went wrong. I didn't want to give her hopes up. But I also had to believe that things _wouldn't_ go wrong. "We're looking for Mommy and Daddy," I finally answered.

"Will you be back to tuck me in?" she asked. Every time we left the ship I told her we were looking for Mommy and Daddy, so she thought this was just another trip.

"Jase, we're here!" Charlie called, sticking his head briefly into the room.

I took a deep breath and crouched down. "Will's going to stay here with you, but if something happens he might have to come find us. If that happens, we've put all the protection we can on my and Oscar's room, so you and Oscar go there and keep your head down until we get back, ok?"

She nodded, her curly blonde hair bouncing as she did. "Be careful, Jasey."

I smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Always. Now come here, give me a hug before I go," I beckoned with a smile. She giggled and jumped into my arms. I buried my head into her hair and vowed that I would come back because I knew she'd be heartbroken if I didn't. "I have to go now, I'll see you tonight."

Everybody else was waiting for me on the deck. I had stopped to say goodbye to Oscar so I was a few minutes late. Charlie was jumpier than usual, which was really saying something. In the short time that I'd known him, I'd learned that he was more ADHD than anybody else I'd met (except maybe the Stolls) despite his mother's calm demeanor. He talked about her alot, she seemed really nice. I think her and my own mom would get along great, and they'd probably exchange embarrassing husband stories.

"Ready?" Max asked.

"No idea, let's find out."


	24. A Trap

It was quite a hike before Charlie's crystal finally lit up completely. That's when we knew we'd arrived. But the only problem; there was nothing there. It was a mountain. No cave, no visible entrance. We almost lost hope, until Kat noticed a small trickle of purple liquid coming from seemingly a random spot in the mountain. I recognized it as the poison from my dream.

"It's here, this is it. Somewhere," I said.

"How do we get in?" Nico asked. He'd been serious since we landed. Nico had lost one sister and he was determined not to lose another. I shrugged honestly and looked around where the poison was coming from. The Earth around it seemed perfectly normal.

"Well, there's got to be an entrance somewhere. How else would they have gotten our parents in?" Jonathan noted.

"Knucklehead is right," Kat said, sticking her thumb towards her twin. "And the monsters that took them have got to be pretty big, so the entrance must be too."

Charlie began poking his head around bushes and shrubs. "Then how can we miss something that's so big?" He accidentally caught the nearest shrub on fire.

"Charlie, it's got to be here somewhere. But if these monsters are as smart as we think they are, then the entrance is probably only accessible by them," I told him.

He groaned and glanced up at me. "Fine. Then let's make them open it. Make a distraction, and when one comes out we kill it and go inside," Charlie said harshly. If he continued to grow this frustrated, he'd end up going in too hot and sabotaging our mission. I set my hand on his shoulder to calm him and strangely, it worked.

Nico nodded in agreement. "I like that idea. Everybody, go into hiding. Wait for my go, then we attack," he ordered.

We scattered. Charlie and I ended up behind a large rock. Nico hid in a tree and scanned the area to make sure we were all out of view. He nodded to himself then yelled, "WHO YOU GONNA CALL!"

I resisted the urge to yell Ghostbusters. Charlie, on the other hand, whispered it under his breath. I nudged him but I had to hide my smile.

The mountain seemed to tear apart at an unseen seam. An entrance large enough for a giant, which is what appeared, to exit. It stood in the entryway and looked around, then bellowed, "WHO'S THERE?" It stopped and itched its stomach. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Obviously, we didn't answer. Charlie began frantically poking my shoulder. I glared at him but he didn't stop.

"Jase!" he whisper yelled. I tried to shush him but he kept shaking his head as if he had something important to say. "Why are they keeping our parents alive?" he continued.

"What?" I finally whispered back.

"It's a trap!" Charlie warned. "They're keeping our parents alive for a reason. There's no other explanation, it's got to be a trap."

Realization struck me. "The monsters from Tartarus. Our parents were the ones to keep their mother from waking. If they wanted revenge, the best way would be to…"

"To kill us," Charlie finished. They knew were were coming. They were waiting for us.

There was no way to warn the others without alerting the giant. And it was too late anyway, Nico had sprung into action.

"Now!" he yelled. Casey was the first to spring forward, closely followed by the others. Too late now. I jumped forward, dragging Charlie with me. Jon gave Kat a leg up and she jumped into the air, using her powers to lift her higher. Jon didn't have his dad's power, so he tried to charmspeak the giant from attacking us. Charlie caught the giant's hairy toes on fire. While the giant was looking down at its burning feet, Kat dug her blade into the back of its head.

The giant stared blankly at me for a moment before it fell to the ground in the entrance. It wasn't dead, we wouldn't be able to do that without a god. But giants have a weak spot on the back of their necks that will paralyze them (basically kill them) for a few hours. We'd be able to do some damage, but we'd need to hurry. The entrance started to close but the giant's body was working like a foot stuck in an elevator door. I gave Casey a hand up and we stepped over the giant's head into the hideaway and the others were just behind us.

I saw my dad first, just like in my dream. Despite his situation, he smiled at us. He looked even more tired than the last time I'd seen him. I slipped Max from my pocket just as the giants jumped into action. There must have been ten of them at the least, maybe more. I took out my sword and let my instincts take over. I surveyed my surroundings. I saw Piper next. She was being held in the air, probably by Jason, over a small pit of spikes with a rope around her neck so he couldn't get her out. She looked somewhere between glad to see us, and wanting to chew us out for walking into this. My mom just looked like she wanted to chew us out.

We wouldn't be able to fight these giants, especially without the Seven.

"Jase! We need to get to work. I'll cover you," Casey said. I nodded and she put her back to mine and continued to fight. I took control of the water surrounding my mom and called out to Kat, who then used her own powers to hold up the rock above my dad. Max finally cut him loose, which gave him more flexibility to use his additional powers to slowly get Mom out of the water. They immediately got into the fight. We all knew we didn't have time for a heartfelt reunion quite yet. Kat and Jon got their mom and dad loose while Max and Casey went to free Hazel and Frank. Hazel was bound to a rock with another rock above her that was being held up by Frank the elephant. Max cut his mom loose and she was able to move out of the way, then Frank turned back into a human and let the rock drop. There was no crying or hugs involve, although I did see my parents exchange a quick kiss above a beheaded giantess.

Casey and I fought back to back. Together, we went after one of the larger of the giants. We weren't doing great, but we were surviving.

"Need a hand?" Our dad sliced off the giant's hand and jokingly offered it to us.

"Dad!" Casey nearly dropped her sword to hug him, as did I. The behanded giant bellowed in anger and tried to squash Casey but I put a big cut in his foot just before he could. Dad stabbed it in the throat with a menacing glare that would scare any monster to the bones.

"Stay away from my kids," he growled. The giant launched forward and dad, as if instinctively, ducked out of the way. Casey yelled out and ran up the giant's arm. The giant tried to swat her away while simultaneously attempting to step on my father and I, who were jabbing our swords at its feet. Suddenly, it fell to the ground as Casey launched her sword into the giant's weak point

There were still four giants left. Jason and Mom were fighting one. They seemed to be doing well so I kept looking. Jon had teamed up with his own mom and they worked together to charmspeak the giants into fighting each other. Frank the giant eagle clawed the giant's eyes out while Max the mouse bit their ears, which is much more distracting and painful than you may think. Hazel brought up sharp jewels from under the giant's feet. Nico fought everything in his path. He was but a blur of shadows. Nico was the only warrior I knew that fought without a sound. He was silent and deadly, exactly what we needed. Hazel fought hard but grew tired at times. Every time she grew weary, Nico was by her side with his deadly blade and an even more deadly glare.

As we fought, Casey could have been mistaken for a daughter of Ares. It had always been that way. She rarely watched her defences, possibly because she knew I was. On nearly every mission I'd ever done, I was with Casey. I was there for all of her missions, every quest. We fought in synch. Because of our experience, we had adopted a fighting technique unique to the two of us.

I glanced around as I fought, trying to find Charlie.


	25. It would be a long Fall

Leo was in the back, so I hadn't noticed him before. He was trapped in what I assumed to be an airtight container under water. He wouldn't be able to use his powers in there or he'd run out of oxygen. He was going to run out soon anyways. Charlie was messing with the chain that kept the box suspended but he couldn't seem to make a difference.

"Casey, I'll be right back!" I yelled. Casey didn't take her eyes away from the monster she and Dad fought but she nodded to show she'd heard me.

"Charlie! What can I do?" I ran up to them and put my hand on his shoulder. Charlie whipped his head towards me then back towards his father's entrapment.

"Jase, the water," he said.

I nodded. "Got it. Stand back." I raised my hands, taking the water from the tank with me. Charlie took that as a sign and jumped into the now-empty tank. He took his hammer, the one his father had made, and began hitting the clasp with all his strength. Finally, just as I thought I was about to drop the water, it broke. I yelled out, hoping Charlie would understand my urgency, and he quickly pulled his father from the tank. They scrambled back on land and I shot the water at the giant Casey was fighting. Leo and Charlie began talking quickly in Spanish as they embraced.

"I'm glad we're all alive and together and all, but we have other issues at the moment," I interrupted. Leo grabbed his toolbelt from Piper, who had thrown it to him. He winked at Charlie, then ran off into the fight.

"FLAME ON!" we heard him yell. By now there was only one monster left. She was the biggest of the bunch but she'd lost her bravo after we'd taken care of the others.

"Where is Nyx?" Piper demanded. Jason had his sword pointed at the giantess's throat. In response, the monster only laughed.

"Kill me now," she spat. "We're all going to die anyways."

"WHERE IS SHE!" Piper screamed.

"She's coming." The giantess suddenly grabbed the blade of Jason's sword and plunged it forward, into her own throat, killing herself. We didn't need a god if she did the deed herself. Jason cursed and took back his sword.

"She's right. Nyx is coming. We have go get out of here before she finds us," my dad said. He held mom's hand tightly. I knew this must have brought back memories for them. Bad memories. Suddenly, there was a loud screech from deeper within the cavern. My mom took my hand and pulled me towards the exit with the others. I nearly froze at her touch.

"Hurry!" she urged. We waited, letting the others pass before us. The Zhangs got through first and made a run for the ship. Kat and Jon were in the wind (literally, Kat flew them towards the ship). Jason placed his hand firmly around Piper's wait but before they could take off, Nyx found us. She screeched and slammed her claws into the ground, sending us flying. A large crack tore through the ground. Lucky me, I landed closest to Nyx. Note the sarcasm.

"JASE!" Casey scrambled towards me. She was too late. Nyx snatched me up and pressed her nose to my cheek. She was smelling me.

"Ah, Jackson," she hissed. I squirmed persistently, but she only squeezed tighter. Another crack formed. Nyx nearly dropped me, which meant she couldn't control the cracks. Somebody yelled out and couldn't help but look for the source. Charlie. Charlie was dangling over the edge. The edge to Tartarus. Leo ran to help him but Charlie was too far down to reach.

"I have the world at my fingertips! In just days the gods will be at my beck and call and I will rule over all that is known. I shall have the greatest armies there are and will be worshipped by all there is! I have everything!" She cried, digging her fingertips into my shoulder. She was going to use me to get to the others. She was going to kill them so she could reach Olympus. The giants may have been fixed on revenge, but Nyx wanted power. She was the mastermind behind this whole thing, which explains why the giants were so easy to get rid of.

"And you also have my son," A deep infuriated voice growled from behind us. Nyx turned around, dragging me with her. In the entry to her cave was Percy Jackson. He was covered in scratches and his clothes were torn to threads but he looked more intimidating than I'd ever seen him. He didn't look at me. His penetrated glare was fixed onto Nyx. If I were his enemy, I'd probably be peeing myself at this moment. I wanted so badly to hug him, to grab him and pull him far away, but I couldn't move. I wanted to tell him to run but the selfish side of me wanted too badly to get away from this evil goddess. I knew my dad would never leave me. Not willingly anyway. Charlie was still grasping for something to hold on to but made so little noise that everybody focused on Nyx and my dad instead.

"Someone get Charlie!" I yelled, my voice cracked as Nyx suddenly tightened her grip on my throat. My dad's eyes skirted over to Charlie and I saw confusion, for just a moment. That's when I realized that he had no idea who Charlie Valdez was. Well, I didn't really have the ability to explain it at the moment so he'd just have to wait. Dad raised his sword to fight of Nyx but he was missing the point (no pun intended.) Charlie was losing his grip, the ground was crumbling.

"Dad, Charlie!" I hoped he'd understand. He took a step closer to the ledge but couldn't really make a move because Nyx and I were in the way.

"Jase, calm down, it's going to be ok," my dad comforted. Yeah for us maybe, but Charlie didn't have that much time. In that moment, a large rumble shook the concave and the ground split beneath us once again. Dad's sword was thrown from his hand and Nyx lost her grip and dropped me to the floor. She raised her claws and was about to dig them into my chest, probably deciding that killing my would be so much easier than whatever else she had planned. Charlie gave one last scream before the ground gave out completely and he fell. Alone.

I don't know what overcame me. Mom and Dad had told me the terrors of Tartarus many times. I'd heard their muffled screams from my bedroom at night and sobs as they comforted each other. But there was only one thing that stuck out to me in this moment: my parents survived because they were with each other. Nico went alone and nearly died, but mom and dad were there longer than him. They traveled through the pit and escaped. All of these thoughts were processed and cataloged in my mind in no less than half a second.

So of course, I did the logical thing. I drew my knees to my chest and kicked off the goddess as hard as I could, lodging myself in the direction of Charlie's screams.

I couldn't hear exactly what my dad yelled but it sounded vaguely like my name. It was the last thing I heard before the light disappeared and I was swallowed into the darkness of Tartarus.


	26. Read if you want a part two?

Hello, my wonderful readers! Yesterday I might have left you off with a bit of a cliffhanger...Sorry not sorry, you won't have to wait long for the beginning of part 2. Now that part 1 has officially ended, I thought I'd take the time to really thank you all for reading. Like, seriously. It's amazing how many people actually look at the words I put on paper instead of paying attention during class!

I love your comments and I read every single one of them and I appreciate every one of you that takes the time to leave a note in the comments.

I'll give you a new update tomorrow, I promise. Maybe even later tonight if I feel nice. But for now, I have 3 questions for Y'all guys gals and nonbinary pals:

What do you think will happen next?

Is there something you'll be mad if you don't see in part 2?

How are you liking the story so far?

Thanks!


	27. Tartarus, arrival

The fall didn't seem to ever end. I could see Charlie somewhere beneath me for a few moments until it went black. Something was hissing and growling, seemingly reaching out for me. I clung to my backpack. Not so I wouldn't lose it, but because I was terrified. I prayed that my mom or dad hadn't jumped in after me, even though I knew they were too far away to do so. I had to force my eyes open every few minutes to make sure we weren't near the bottom. I knew the River of Lamentation would be beneath me somewhere. It was there when Mom and Dad fell and we were in the same spot. Well, at least I hoped we were.

It seemed like I had been falling for hours, days maybe. My hands were going numb from gripping my backpack so tight. Suddenly, a cavern opened beneath me. I could see Charlie again. He'd gone still. Beneath us was what I assumed to be the Cocytus (River of Lamentation) but it didn't look like any river I'd ever seen. It was a dark murky grey. The only thing keeping it from turning completely black was grey and white souls stuck in its currents. I hoped Charlie was conscious, and willed the water to catch him. It did, but I was exhausted. It took the last of my energy to force the river sideways, pushing him towards shore. I was on the brink of consciousness now. I knew I should prepare myself for the cold, but instead I was focused on staying awake.

I hit the water. The cold forced a sob from my throat and bubbles rose to the surface. I tried to swim upwards but was suddenly taken back with despair.

 _"_ _You're dead, It's worthless, you've left your family already, you can't survive this"_

I tried not to believe them, but they were right. I knew what the river was trying to do to me. It was working.

" _You're not strong enough"_

I wasn't. A small part of me realized that Charlie was still up there, hopefully on the shore. The rest of me was ready to join the souls around me. With the last of my effort, I raised a hand towards the quickly disappearing light. My vision began fading to blackness. I couldn't tell if the hand reaching towards me was a figment of my imagination or not.

 _They're coming, they're coming._

I woke up in pain. Everything hurt. I was cold. I was alone. I wasn't in my bed. I forced my eyes open and immediately regretted the decision. It was hot, sticky. The salty tears on my cheeks made my eyes burn. I tried to remember what my mom had told me. The shore, the one I assumed I was on now, was made of broken glass. I carefully rolled over and tried to avoid cutting up my hands.

"Back! Get back you stupid bat!" Charlie yelled weakly. I turned my head and saw him a few feet away. In his hands was a small rock, which he was using to try and fend off the bat-like creature attacking him. I didn't have my sword, I didn't have my backpack. I grabbed a large chunk of glass and took steady aim, then threw it. The bat creature squealed as the glass impaled it right between the eyes, then it fell into the river we'd just escaped from.

"Jase!" Charlie dropped his rock, which I just then realized was actually his shoe.

"Charlie, you're alive." I pulled him in for a hug. "I wasn't sure if you made it."

"What are you doing here? Where _is_ here?" he asked frantically.

I wondered if I should tell him that I jumped. "Nyx, she threw me in." I lied. I didn't want Charlie to feel guilty, which I knew he would if I told him the truth. Charlie's face contorted in sympathy and guilt and another emotion I didn't decipher. "We're in Tartarus. Greek Hell."

"Jase," he whispered. "I'm so sorry,"

I smiled despite the situation. "Hey, it's ok! At least we're together, right? Imagine going through this alone," I said. My mind wandered to Nico.

Charlie looked to the ground. "Yeah but if one of us were here the other would still be alive for Christmas," he muttered guiltily. This is why I couldn't tell him that I jumped. The guilt would kill him.

"We'll both be alive, Chuck. We're going to get out of here. You've heard the story of Percy and Annabeth right?" I'd told him my parents story over the nights of our traveling.

He scoffed, "We are _not_ that strong."

"Not the point," I said, although I didn't disagree. "We know the general layout, so we know where to go to get out."

"No we don't! How does their story at all give us a map?"

I rolled my eyes. "Did you not pay attention? My mom, Annabeth, went through the entire story and talked about where they went. From there it's not hard to make a general map," I explained. Charlie just stared at me.

"I think you're more like Athena than you think," he said plainly. I rolled my eyes but silently admitted he was probably right.

"So, where do we go?" he asked.

I thought for a moment and tried to remember for sure. There was a deep heart-wrenching scream from behind us. One that could only have come from a monster. Charlie and I exchanged looks of alarm.

"Just, run!" I yelled as the noise got louder. Charlie didn't seem to mind the order.

We ran until we were unable to continue. "Ok, ok, stop," Charlie huffed and rested his hands on his knees. "I can't breathe."

It wasn't just because he was out of breath. The air was thick and smoggy. It was a smell I knew was familiar. It took me awhile to realize what it was. Death. It was the stench of after-battle mourning. It brought back memories of bloody fights and painful losses.

"Now what? How do we get out?" Charlie asked. He was looking over a cliff edge, letting his bare feet dangle.

I shrugged honestly. He probably wanted better news, but I didn't have anything for him. I didn't know how we were going to get out.

"We have to find the crack," I said.

"You mean the one we fell from? The one we just ran away from? The one that's in the other direction?!" Charlie threw his arms into the air.

"No. Not that crack. It was only a temporary one. It closed up after we fell. The monsters have been escaping from somewhere, but I don't know where." I lowered my head.

"So, follow the monsters?" Charlie yawned.

I stared at him. "YES! Charlie, that's brilliant!"

"Uh, yeah?" Charlie said unsurely. I laughed, probably a strange sound considering our current location.

"Why are you laughing? We are in LITERAL hell! We're surrounded by lava and monsters, how is this humorous?" Charlie said. Then he began to laugh too. The sound of our strained laughter caused the echos of growls to disappear in the distance. I'd keep my distance too- we were obviously insane.

"Wait, what lava?" I asked as we began to settle down. Charlie shrugged and pointed down the cliff. Beneath him, was the lava. Well, not lava exactly. I knew better than that. "The River Phaethon! We've got to get down there," I said, carefully lowering myself down the cliff's edge.

"Uh, Jase, I am not climbing down a dangerous cliff just so we can get to another dangerous thing. How is lava supposed to help us?"

"Just trust me!" I didn't put the effort into explaining, I was busy trying not to die. I'd had enough of falling for one lifetime

"That is a terrible idea!"

I glared at him before my head disappeared over the edge. "Then have fun surviving on your own!" I yelled.

"Wait, Jase! Wait up!" He began to crawl down after me. He was shaking, which made me realize something. Charlie was not a trained demigod. He didn't have a lava spitting rock wall to teach him, or a rope climbing class. In terms of experience, Charlie was just a normal kid. Yes, he was a giant help in defeating Khione, but all he'd done was blow up. It was impressive, yes. But he hadn't had to actually fight.

"Charlie, be careful," I warned. He hummed in response. We kept climbing and I began to think the cliff was getting taller the more we climbed.

I glanced down and noticed that finally, I was only about six feet off the ground. Charlie was about ten feet above me when suddenly he yelped, losing his grip.

I know that you guys hate the cliffhangers, but keep in mind that these only last a day or two until the next update XD Thank you to everybody who commented and gave me feedback, it was much loved and valued :)

To the reader who said, "I HATE cliffhangers. You are just like Rick witht he cliffhangers."... Thank you! That may not have been a compliment XD but I'd say ol' Ricky was pretty successful.

AleeAthenaDaughter37, I hope the suspense didn't kill you, but I appreciate the enthusiasm!

Thesweetscentofbooks, you have an amazing freaking screen name. And also, Jason might take your lecture to heart. He'll be contemplating his decision-and it's effect on his family-later on.


	28. Charlie stands up to a friend

I watched helplessly as he fell past me. I jumped to the ground, ignoring the sharp pain in my ankles as I did. I ran to his side.

"Charlie!"

He groaned in response. I tore my eyes away from his crumpled form to the River of Fire. I ran to its edge and forced my hands inside. It burned, more than anything I'd ever experienced. I'd been hit by a hydra when I was younger, and this still hurt more. And I had to drink it. But first, Charlie.

"Ok, this might burn. Open your mouth," I said. Charlie chuckled as if something I'd said was somehow humorous. While he giggled, I poured the fire down his throat.

"It burns!" he yelled.

"Well yeah, it's fire."

"But it _burns_!" He sat up and began trying to scrape the fire off his tongue as if it was bad food. "I've never been burned before," Charlie said, much quieter this time.

"The fire resistance," I muttered.

Charlie shrugged. "I didn't even know I had that until I landed on your ship. But that doesn't mean I didn't have it. I've never been burned before," he glanced at my hands. The fire had burned me, but it had also healed me. My hands were red and calloused, like a long ago scarred injury.

"Now it's my turn." I took another scoop of the water into my hands and forced it down my throat. It felt like I was being burned from the inside. I gagged and breathed in, hoping to get some cool air into my lungs. Of course, being in Tartarus, it didn't work. I ended up coughing up death itself, hopefully not literally.

"Well, feel better?" I asked.

Charlie huffed annoyingly. "Can somebody feel better and worse at the same time?" he asked.

"I don't know, but we've got to drink this stuff if we want to live. We have to follow the monsters, but we must attempt to stay close to the river as well."

Charlie nodded and looked as if he was about to say something sarcastic, but we were interrupted.

The same loud roar from when we first landed, but this time it was closer. "Charlie get up, we have to run!" I grabbed his wrist, but he pulled away.

"Or we could fight," he said. I turned to look at him, finding that the usual expression had been replaced with one of determination.

"What?"

"Listen, we're probably going to die in here anyway. Plus, that thing isn't going to stop chasing us. We might as well fight it now while we're still strong," he explained.

"Sure, strong."

"Think you can waterbend the lava?"

I looked at him funny. "Waterbend?"

He smiled and shrugged. "It's from a-, nevermind. It's a mortal thing, I guess."

The roar got closer, then something came into view. It was a titan, that much was for sure. He was smaller than a normal titan, but that wasn't the most surprising part. I gasped and found that I couldn't breathe.

"Jase, what is it?"

The titan raised it's broom, seconds from smashing us to bits. He brought his arms down and the broom nearly smashed our heads.

"Bob," I whispered. The titan's broom stopped as it reached my hair.

"I am Bob," it said. It was quieter than a whisper, it was as if it were a question.

"I know!" I grinned and approached him quickly, only to be nearly smacked away by his broom.

"Who are you? How do you know Bob?" he asked.

"Bob, you're a hero!" I said. Bob looked confused.

"My name is Jase Jackson. My parents are Percy and Annabeth, they speak very highly of you. We all thought you were gone,"

He didn't speak. He picked me up and held me up to his face. "You smell like strawberries. Like Annabeth."

I smiled and pointed at my hair. "Same shampoo as my mom," I pointed out. Bob stared at me curiously, then wrapped me in a fierce hug.

"Bob smash titan smash titan!" he set me down then raised his broom over Charlie, who screeched in terror.

"I thought this was a good guy!"

"He is! Bob, stop!" I got between him and Charlie.

"Bob no smash?" he questioned.

"No smash!"

Bob lowered his broom. Charlie huffed in relief and let his body relax. "So, why does Bob here, or whatever his name is, want to kill me?" he asked cautiously.

"Your mother is Calypso. You're half titan, remember?"

Charlie's gaze dropped. "Right." He still seemed upset that his parents hadn't told him. I smiled reassuringly and set a hand on his shoulder.

"Bob, do you know where we are?" I asked.

"Tartarus," Bob answered plainly. I tried not to roll my eyes.

"Yes, I know that. Do you know a place where we can rest? Some place safe?

"Yes, to friend!" Bob cheered. He didn't even ask why we were here to how we'd arrived. He just took off in the opposite direction of the river. I didn't want to leave the Phaethon, but Bob was trustworthy. Bob was the reason our parents survived. Charlie looked at me for an answer. Instead of saying anything, I ran after Bob.

"What friend?" I called. Bob didn't reply. We kept running. A

fter a long while, Charlie was huffing and puffing. He grabbed my arm, telling me that ne needed to stop.

"Bob! Wait!"

Finally, Bob listened. "Friend is close," he said.

"We need rest. Please, Bob." I sat down and leaned my head against a rock. Charlie followed suit. "We don't have any weapons, or food, or water. We need supplies."

Bob pointed behind him. "We stop here."

Then I realized that Bob hadn't been listening when I told him to stop. He'd brought us here for a reason. Bob was pointing at a shrine, something I'd heard of many times from my parents. Mom loved to brag about when they went to the shrine because she wanted us all to know that _she_ was the one that discovered Riptide could be used as a pen. A fist of longing punched me in the gut as I remembered my parents.

"Bob, what time is it?" I asked, staring hungrily at the shrine.

Bob only shook his head. "Time is different in Tartarus," he said. Yeah, my parents told me that too.

"Ok, then I guess we wait here until food arrives," I said.

"Wait, food will arrive?" Charlie perked up, suddenly interested.

"It's from Camp," I explained. Charlie raised his eyebrows. "Oh, right. As demigods, we burn some of our food for offerings to the gods. This is one of Hermes shrines, it must have fallen down here years ago. When the kids from at Camp burn offerings, some of it goes here."

"So we get food?" Charlie grinned and I chuckled softly.

"Yes. But even more importantly, we can send a message. Let the others know we're ok," I said. "Now, we just need to find paper and a pen," I muttered. I began patting my pockets, although I knew there was nothing there. Bob pulled a small notepad from the front pocket of his overalls.

"Great, thanks Bob. But we still need a pen."

Nobody had an answer for that. I sighed and clutched Bob's notebook. My parents must be worried sick, I knew they were. They were terrified of Tartarus, and it made me guilty to know that by jumping in after Charlie, I had hurt them. They knew what it was like to be here, so I knew they'd be worried. I needed to tell them I was ok. I had to.

"Charlie, make a fire," I commanded.

"What?" he raised his hand and tried to get the fire to ride across his fingertips. He was inexperienced, it didn't work. He caught his whole hand on fire instead.

"The rocks, set fire to the rocks. Scorch them. I need the soot to write."

Charlie shrugged and blasted a column of fire, probably larger than the one he'd been trying to make, and nearly caught his flannel on fire as well.

"That's good!" I said quickly. Charlie sheepishly stopped the fire. "Thanks." I took my finger and dragged it through the soot, then placed it onto the paper. "What should I write?" I asked.

"This was your idea, why are you asking me?"

There was so much I wanted to tell them. But what all could I fit onto one piece of paper? I let my finger slide across the paper.

 _We're alive_

It was all I put. We were alive and that's all they needed to know. Now we just had to wait. So we did. We waited.

And waited.

Waiting...

Still waiting.

Waiting some more.

Still…

Wait….

Ing…


	29. Why does Dad have so many friends here?

Lucky for us, the Hermes cabin was enjoying a nice steak for dinner that night.

"This is amazing!" Charlie ranted as he stuffed his face with his small portion of food.

"It's from Camp, of course it's amazing," I bragged.

I held the letter Charlie was going to burn in my hand. I prayed to every god I knew that Camp would get the message. They'd get the message, then they'd have hope.

But what if that was a bad thing.

"Charlie, this may be a bad idea," I spoke softly. He glanced up from his last bite of steak.

"What, the letter?"

"Yeah, the letter. It's going to give our parents hope," I stopped talking and looked at the paper in my hand.

"Right. And that's a bad thing?"

"What if they shouldn't have hope."

Charlie abandoned his food completely. "Why would having hope be a bad thing? I thought hope was good," he commented.

I lifted my shoulders in a small shrug. "But what if we don't get out? What if we get their hopes up for nothing?"

"And I thought you were a _positive_ person," he said sarcastically.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Here, burn the note." I held it out to him. He didn't take it.

"I didn't say you were wrong." He took the letter and set it at our feet. "It's better they don't have hope of us coming home if we don't end up getting out of here. I don't want to cause my dad any more pain than he already is in. My mom either," he was whispered by the time he finished. We both stared down at it, not speaking.

"Sorry."

It was easy to fall into a deep depressing silence in Tartarus. Charlie took a deep breath before he opened his eyes. "So," he sounded, trying to be cheerful, "Are we just going to stay here with the magical food thing?"

"It's a shrine." I corrected. "And we've got to keep moving."

"Now to see friend!" Bob announced. He shook the ground beneath us as he jumped to his feet. I offered a hand to Charlie, and we were off. Again.

"When he says friend," Charlie asked, "What does he mean?"

"I think, I hope, he means Damasen the giant," I explained. I felt a tug at my heart as I said the name. Mom got a faraway look in her eye every time she spoke of him and Bob. The guilt nearly overwhelmed her. Dad never looked anybody in the eye when Mom brought it up, and he was saddened any time he spoke of Bob and Damasen. When most kids had superheros, I had Damasen. To me, he was better than any superhero.

Bob's path was thankfully nearby the River Phaethon. When Charlie and I got tired, it regrettably happened a lot, we had to stop and take a drink. Every time I forced the fire down my throat, I wondered if I could survive without it, then I wondered if I even cared.

"What I would give for a coke." Charlie gagged on the fire. I scoffed in agreement.

"Bob, how much further?" I asked.

Bob lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. "Time is funny in Tartarus."

"Right."

Charlie looked feverish and stared straight ahead as we walked. He seemed to flinch every time he took a step, which reminded me that he was still barefoot. He didn't mention it, and I didn't ask. I had a lot of time to think while we walked, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Every time I started thinking about anything, my thoughts would come back to Charlie and I being stuck in here. I jumped in here, now my family has to pay the price. Nyx was still there when I jumped. My family had to fight her on their own, and I had no way of knowing that they'd succeeded. Casey had never fought in a large battle by herself, we'd always fought together. Now I'd gone and left her on her own. My parents were more terrified of this place than anything else in the known world and I'd just jumped into it in front of them. I promised Adora I'd be back to tuck her in that night, and now I probably was never going to again. But then I looked back at Charlie. He was grinning at me and walking along the rock as if it were a tight rope. I may have left my family up there, but I wouldn't change my choice. I would have jumped in here by myself than let him fall in alone.

"I SMELL SEA SCUM!" An unfamiliar voice yelled, distracting me from my thoughts.

"I think he means you," Charlie said.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You think?" I got into my fighting stance and reached for my sword but stopped when I realized it wasn't there. Charlie bent his knees in what looked like a soccer goalie position. He raised his fiery fists and tried to look intimidating. With a cloud of dust, a large monster appeared. I hadn't seen it before, but I knew who it was. I'd heard the story a few times. The minotaur's head was tilted because of its missing horn (Dad still had it on a shelf in the Poseidon cabin) but he looked angrier than my dad and grandmother had described him. Bob smashed his feet and raised his broom.

"YOU WILL REGRET KILLING ME!" The minotaur screamed at me.

"That wasn't me!" I protested. I doubted I looked very innocent. Despite the minotaur being his first real experience in the Greek world, Dad didn't tell it as much as he did his other stories. He hated picturing Grandma Sally being taken by him. Just thinking about it, I grew furious. Nobody touches my grandmother. I let out a short war cry and ran forward. Somewhere behind me, Charlie was not-so-gently reminding me that I had no weapons and no water. That wasn't going to stop me. The minotaur lowered its head to spear me with its horn, unknowingly providing me with an opportunity. I jumped before he reached me and grasped for his horn. He bellowed in anger as his head sagged to the left with my weight. I held onto his horn for dear life as he tried to shake me off. He swung around but didn't do any damage until his teeth embedded into my foot.

"Charlie! Attack him while he's vulnerable!" I yelled, ignoring the pain.

Charlie didn't answer but fireballs came raining down around me. I nearly lost my grip when one landed on my leg.

"Watch where you're shooting!" I shouted, patting the fire out of my pants.

"Sorry!"

The minotaur stumbled towards him and Bob. Bob wasn't paying attention. He was chasing what looked like a kitten. Small Bob, probably.

I groaned in effort and took handfuls of the monster's sticky fur (why the Hades is it sticky?) and climbed further up his head.

"Charlie aim for his mouth!" I ordered as a plan formed. With one hand I held on for dear life. With the other hand, I began poking the minotaur's eyes. It bellowed in pain and blindly swiped at the air. Charlie shot fire at his face, but Charlie was a terrible aim. The fire didn't do anything anyways. All it seemed to do was annoy the minotaur. So, I came up with a new plan.

I yanked on the minotaur's ear and he veered right. I tugged more, leading him towards the cliff. He still couldn't see, so my plan actually had a chance of working. With one last scream of anger, the minotaur fell of the side of the cliff. With me still on his head. I used the momentum I had left and kicked off the monster's head and jumped, lunging for the rocks.

I missed.

 _(AU: AleeAthenaDaughter37, this may be a bad fic if you don't like cliffhangers… Just wait until the end of part 2 :) mwahahaha_

 _Hey, so I've started the part for the outside world, like what's happening with everybody that's not in Tartarus… So what do you guys want to see?)_


	30. I think I've been waiting to do this

"Shit Jason, how much do you weigh?" Charlie asked. His hand was wrapped tightly around my wrist.

"Oh shut up and help me," I groaned. He pulled me to safety and we both peaked over the edge where the minotaur disappeared. Nothing but the River Phaethon was beneath us.

"Ewwww," Charlie scrunched up his nose, "I'm not drinking that anymore."

I looked away and nodded in agreement. I laid my head back on a rock, suddenly feeling how exhausted I really was.

"Bob, think we can break for the night?" Charlie asked when he noticed how tired I was.

Bob frowned slightly but nodded. "I shall watch." He splatted down cross-legged on the ground in front of us. Charlie looked weary but I knew we could trust Bob. My parents trusted him and after all he'd done, I knew we could too.

It usually didn't take me long to fall asleep, but not now. I hadn't slept since we'd gotten here and I had a hard time picturing that I ever would. I knew Charlie had fallen asleep when I could hear his adorable gentle snoring.

"Bob," I said quietly as I pulled myself into a sitting position next to him.

"Yes, I am Bob."

"Thank you for helping my parents. They wouldn't be alive without you."

Bob looked up in wonder as if he were stargazing. "Percy and Annabeth are my friends," he said. We both stared at the pit above us. The sight made my stomach churn. It looked like we were at the bottom of a deep endless chasm. Well, we were.

A whimper brought my attention back to our situation. I turned to face Charlie, who's face had scrunched up in fear. He flailed violently in his sleep. His limbs hit and kicked his surroundings, which happened to be me. I shook him gently but he didn't wake. Whimpers escaped his mouth and he cried. That's when I decided I had to take action. Bob watched in confusion. I grabbed Charlie and held him tightly in my arms, yelling for him to wake up.

"They will all leave!" he shouted the moment he woke, staring at me with crazed eyes. "They're all going to go!"

I didn't know where this was coming from and I didn't know how to stop it from happening. Any demigod sleeping in Tartarus would have nightmares, it was expected. But I hadn't slept. I hadn't had to deal with it.

"They'll never leave! They'll kill you!" he continued to scream. I ignored the fact that monsters were probably at this moment trying to find the source of the demigod screaming in Tartarus. His whimpers turned to elongated yelps and pleas to whatever god he could name, which wasn't many. I thought that was his issue until I knelt onto the ground to help him. It felt like skin. Actual human skin. If I moved slowly enough I could feel it moving as if the body beneath it were breathing. The ground was sticky and warm with the feeling of human blood.

"Charlie calm down! Nobody's leaving you!"

He bolted awake but that didn't seem to help any. The look in his eyes told me that he didn't believe a word I had said.

"No, they're all going to leave. You're going to leave," his voice carried through the endless terrain like a wave.

"I'm not going to leave you Charlie!" I yelled. This seemed to silence him for a long enough moment to allow me to continue my protest. "I'm never going to leave you! Charlie, I'm not ever leaving you!" I promised.

Before he got a chance to respond, I bent my head and fiercely kissed him.

I'm not sure what came over me. Maybe it was the delirium. Maybe it was the stress. Maybe I had finally gone completely bonkers. Whatever it was, it worked. And I didn't regret it.

Charlie stared at me with a perfectly blank expression. He pulled himself upwards into my chest. I held him as he sobbed.

We rocked back and forth for hours that we didn't have to spare. Bob placed a hand on my shoulder and didn't speak. The monsters hadn't found us, but I knew our luck was running thin. They'd find us soon. We had to keep moving. I stood and tried to get Charlie to do the same but he was too weak. He shook his head, motioning for me to keep going.

"Jase, I can't walk. Not like this. In the time it's going to take me to heal it will have already been too late,"

I didn't say a word as I physically interrupted him. I lifted him up and onto my back like I did with Adora.

"Charlie Valdez, I am either getting through this with you or not at all," I said. He knew he couldn't win this fight and something told me he didn't want to. So we trekked through the canyons of Tartarus with a janitor titan, a skeleton kitten, and a piggyback ride.

I thought about Charlie as we walked. He wasn't asleep, but he might as well have been. He didn't speak or move, but I could feel him breathing against me. From what he'd told me while we were still on the Argo, he'd never been away from home for more than a night. That all changed when he was kidnapped by Dionysus and stuck with us. Now he was further away from home than he'd ever be and it was unlikely he would ever return. He was forced into this life.

I couldn't tell how much time had passed. Maybe it had been hours, maybe a day. Maybe more. When I jumped, I'd had a lifeproof watch. Apparently this didn't count. My watch wasn't deathproof. I'd also tried counting as we walked to see how much time had passed. After I'd counted a minute or so, I realized that we'd only walked a few feet. Time was different in Tartarus, so I gave up on it.


	31. Damasen

A small hut came into view and I smiled because I knew what it was. It was made of bones and monster pelt; a particular monster.

"I would kill for a homecooked meal and a real bed," Charlie finally spoke. He sounded tired.

"Would you kill a drakon for it?" I asked with a small smile. Charlie craned his neck to see.

"Dragons aren't real," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes they are, but that's not what I said."

"Dragons are real?" Charlie began to perk up. I laughed and set him down as we approached the rocky landscape outside. He smiled in thanks. I smiled back and my heart jumped to my throat. I'd kissed Charlie Valdez. My heart began beating quickly as I grew nervous, then I decided that I didn't care. I wasn't going to get nervous about this. I was in Tartarus and I probably was never going to come home. So if I kissed a guy and enjoyed his company, then what did it matter. I was in Tartarus. I could do what I want. Charlie looked questioningly at me but I shrugged him off, telling him it was nothing.

Bob knocked gently on the door and yelled, "Hello friend!" He opened the hut's large door.

"Who have you brought, Bob?" the giant asked, not even looking around.

"It is very nice to meet you, I've heard so much about you," I said, beaming at him. It sounds cheesey, but Damasen was my hero. My parents spoke so fondly of him and I'd heard his story since I was a little kid. He was brave and fought for his freedom but in the end, gave it up for friends he knew would save the world. Hades, I was even named after him.

Damasen turned around with a singular raised eyebrow. He was born a monster but he still had a kind face. His expression was amused as he looked down at me with crossed arms.

"And you are?"

"Jason Jackson, sir."

He smiled and uncrossed his arms. "Nobody has called me sir before."

I only smiled and nodded in respect.

"Jackson, huh? Didn't think I'd see one of you back here." He looked sadly at me, then to Charlie.

"This is Charlie, son of Leo Valdez and Calypso," I introduced. Charlie gave cheeky smile and a small wave when I said his name.

"Why are you here, Jason and Charlie?" he asked. He almost sounded scared. I didn't blame him. Last time demigods were here, his parents were taking over the world.

"Well, giants worked with some dude named Nyx and kidnapped the Seven so their kids went to find and save them, then they I landed in a fiery ball on their ship and joined them. We found our parents and there was a big ass fight then Nyx freaked out and long story short, Jase and I were thrown into Tartarus," Charlie explained.

Bob sat down at the table in the one room hut while Damasen moved to the fireplace and lit a fire under the cauldron. Mom had described Damasen to be bitter. To me, he seemed relieved. Like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He looked comfortable.

"Sounds like quite a story," Damasen commented.

"Yes, sir. It's a long, a very long, story," I said.

Damasen smiled and sat down at the table while the water boiled. He motioned for us to sit, so we did.

"I can assure you a meal if it's a tale you're willing to tell," Damasen promised.

"Deal," Charlie agreed, licking his lips. All three looked at me, which I somehow found humorous. I was in Tartarus about to tell a story to a good Titan named Bob who fought with a mop, a sheep-hearding giant that was a disappointment to his parents, and a half-titan boy who I'd kissed earlier.

I cleared my throat and took a deep breath, then began, "When Percy and Annabeth, my parents, emerged from Tartarus, Pasiphae and Clytus were waiting for them. But so were the rest of the Seven…"

I talked for hours, and that I'm sure of. There was a lot to tell. At first, I recounted my parents' adventures since they escaped Tartarus, then I told my own.

"And Casey, of course, didn't answer the Amphisbaena. Instead, she chucked her dagger at it's face and nearly caught its tongue in half. Then while the second one attacked us, she pretended to get scared and told them to have mercy. Of course, they got too confident and jumped in for the kill. At the last second, Casey rolled out of the way and the Amphisbaenas hit each other and died. I would have found much funnier if I wasn't bound to a stick over a fire." I thought fondly back to the times spent with my sister and quickly moved on to the next story before I missed her too much. Bob laughed many times while I spoke and Damasen smiled nearly the whole time. He was a great listener. The water, it looked more like a broth of some sort, had long since boiled and Damasen had dished us up soup for dinner. I had quick spoonfuls between stories. It was delicious. I kept telling my story. We'd finished dinner before I was done talking. "Then finally," I finished, "we met you."

Damasen folded his hands neatly in front of him. "You are a great storyteller, Jason."

I shrugged and smiled at the compliment. "You're a good listener."

Charlie was scraping the bottom of his bowl. "Can we stay here awhile?"

I wasn't sure if he was asking Damasen or if he was asking me. Damasen lifted his shoulders and gathered our empty bowls. "I would be delighted to make meals and provide a place to stay if you would help me gather supplies and tell stories. You may stay until you are ready to continue on your journey" he said. Charlie smiled and looked at me next.

"I don't know, I'd really like to get going," I didn't finish my sentence, because Charlie's accidental puppy dog eyes made me question my choices.

"If we stay here and prepare, we'll be ready. I can't fight, so I'd be useless if we got into trouble. You can train me! And we need to stay and heal. Plus, I really need shoes," Charlie pointed out. Well, I couldn't argue with that. It wouldn't hurt to stay here and take a couple days to get ready. I'd rather get out late than never.

"Ok. We'll stay here until we've fully prepared to move on. That means when we've been healed to an extent, you've been trained, and you have shoes of some sort. Although I'm not sure where we're going to get shoes," I sighed. Charlie grinned wildly and jumped from his seat, placing a quick and unsure kiss on my cheek.

"Thank you!"


	32. Charlie gets new shoes

I finally slept that night. Damasen had made a makeshift bed from copious amounts of furs and pelts from monsters I couldn't name. The next morning, we began getting ready. Damasen measured Charlie's feet, which was an amusing sight. I went out with Bob and gathered some bones and herbs that grew around the hut for a few hours. Many of the herbs were poisonous, so it was a long treacherous job. It was high stakes gardening in hell.

By the end of the first day, Damasen had crafted Charlie a pair of Maeonian Drakon pelt shoes. They looked like something you'd expect a caveman to wear. But they were durable and according to Charlie, comfortable. While Charlie and Bob went outside to test his new shoes, Damasen pulled me aside.

"Many years ago, Bob found this while searching for supplies. I think it rightly should go to you," he said as he held something towards me. It was a dagger, but not just any dagger. It was golden with beautiful inscriptions alone the casing. I pulled it slowly and gently from its sheath. It was my mother's, given to her by Luke Castellan. I knew it was. Mom had described it to me in detail. She explained that it was supposed to protect its user, and she told me about the promise Luke made when he gave it to her. The promise he broke.

"How," I couldn't finish the question.

"Like I said, Bob found it near the Cocytus and brought it to me. I've kept it safe here in memory of its owner, your mother."

I shivered, remembering my own experience with the River of Lamentation. "Thank you," I whispered. I was doing everything I could to hold back tears, but a few slipped out anyway. Damasen smiled and gave me a slow nod.

A roar broke through the hut, ruining the moment.

"Drakon," Damasen growled. His demeanor changed towards the monster. I raised my hand to keep him from going after it.

"We've got it this time," I promised. I squeezed my hand around the handle of my mother's dagger and ran towards the door. I grabbed Charlie as I ran by and tugged him out the door.

"Come on!" I shouted. He asked where we were going and I answered, "Fighting the Drakon."

"What?!" Charlie freaked.

"You _said_ you wanted to train!"

"Well I didn't think your first lesson would consist of fighting a fucking dragon!"

"Not a dragon!" I protested. Once outside, we finally saw the creature. Mom was right, it was beautiful. The colors reminded me of the forest at Camp on a sunny day. It was a elegant leaf green with blotches of yellow, almost as if reflecting the non-existent sun. It's massive claws made Charlie squeal and back away. I raised my mom's dagger and dug my back foot into the ground.

"Stay back, but be ready," I warned. Bob had crafted him a sword made of Drakon bones and minotaur teeth (he'd pulled them from my foot.)

Poisonous green smoke beckoned from the beast's throat and I carefully took a step to the side. "Avoid the gas, it's poisonous. But keep in mind, it's flammable as well. Raise your sword, dominant hand on top." I kept my eyes trained on the monster as I instructed. I moved in swift movements to avoid it's gas.

"Ok, got it. I think. Next lesson?"

I smiled, narrowing my eyes. I made sure to make eye-contact with the monster, keeping it focused on me and not Charlie. "Watch me," I said. "And copy my movements. Stay back, don't actually fight it. Just copy what I do."

I ducked beneath the gas and swiped smoothly at its throat. Gas spewed uncontrolled from the cut and the Drakon hissed. I needed fire, but I didn't want to take Charlie from his training. I lead the drakon forward a foot or so and swept my dagger across a rock at precisely the right angle. A spark formed, and it was all I needed. The spark caught on the gas leaking from my enemy's throat and it went up in flames. The flames traveled through the air and into the wound, so a small explosion occurred in its stomach. It wasn't fatal, but it was enough to keep the Drakon from spewing any more gas or roaring. It raised it claws and swiped at me. I avoided the first two blows and intercepted the third. I used my dagger to take the majority of the blow and let it move backwards. Then, I quickly pulled the dagger back and thrust it forward while the drakon's claws were still to the side. The drakon's heart was further down than most monsters, so I dragged the dagger down, tearing the pelt until I reached it's heart. Since I'd already caused an explosion in its vocal cords, the drakon's death was silent.

"Woah," Charlie breathed. "I don't think I've seen you look that confident before."

I smirked. "Let's go inside. I'll teach you the _correct_ fighting positions," I said.

We continued his training in the back of the hut near the sheep. Charlie kept getting distracted and going to pet the sheep. I worked with him the entire day and by that night, the only thing he'd gotten was a correct fighting stance. He may have been a quick study of Greek mechanics but fighting was a whole nother story.

When we finished training, Damasen had soup waiting. Instead of telling stories, he had us update him on the outside world. How things worked, what was new. Charlie spent most of the night talking with Damasen about what a hashtag was. I updated Bob on how Nico was doing, which made him happy. At the end of the night, after we'd all eaten, I told them about the crack somewhere in Tartarus.

"Charlie got the idea that if we followed the monsters, the big ones that would have been alerted about the crack, we can follow them out," I said. Damasen looked to the corner of the hut as if deep in thought. "You and Bob will come with us, right?"

Bob didn't speak. He looked at the ceiling. Damasen stood and paced around the table. "We may attract many more monsters to you, it would be dangerous," Damasen warned.

"And we'd also be stronger. You and Damasen took on Tartarus, you're stronger than we are. Plus, I owe you for saving my parents lives. You've given your sacrifice already, you deserve to live out your life in peace now," I promised.

Damasen smiled and nodded gratefully. "I will come with you," he said.

We looked to Bob, who answered with, "I would like to see the stars."


	33. The outside world (introduction)

**CHAPTER 1**

Casey had to be physically detained and dragged away from the cave by her parents. She knew there was no way to open the pit back up, but she couldn't leave Jase down there. Jason and Piper fought Nyx as the remainder of the Jacksons ran. Nyx seemed to be distracted with not creating another crack that she could fall into to do much fighting. When everybody was out-excluding Jase and Charlie of course- Nico slammed his sword into the ground, creating a wave in the earth that pushed the giant from the doorway and allowed it to close, sealing Nyx in.

It was silent for a moment, then Annabeth fell to her knees and began to cry.

Piper had never seen Annabeth cry, not like this. When Percy when missing, she would sometimes walk past the Poseidon cabin and catch Annabeth in tears, clutching Percy's sweatshirt or his pillow to her chest.

But now it was different. Annabeth had just lost her child to her worst nightmare, and there nothing anybody could do about it. No amount of searching or questioning could get him back. There were no doors of death to meet him at. Percy dropped to the ground beside his wife and wrapped his arms around her. Piper wasn't sure who was comforting who. Jason took her hand and she turned, burying her head in his chest.

Jase was not just her best friend's' son, he was Piper's nephew and her children's cousin.

She remembered when Jase had first been born. It was a day that nobody was fearing for their life, where nobody was fighting. The gods stayed up in their palace and didn't bother anybody, and the Seven were happy. When Jason Grace learned of the baby's name, tears had welled in his eyes and he pulled Percy forward in a hug, a real hug. Annabeth pronounced Nico and Will godparents, and Will had promptly fainted.

Jason Jackson, known commonly as Jase, was a eight when he killed his first monster. He had been playing outside with Casey, who was just a baby at the time. Annabeth turned her back to take a phone call, just for a moment. Jase knew it was important because his parents never used phones. A long, supernaturally large snake slithered up behind Casey, and her big brother killed it with nothing but a blue lego building brick.

And now that same Jason was in Tartarus, unlikely to ever even see a lego again, let alone his sister.

"We need to get home so I can talk to Poseidon. I need a phone." Percy's voice was low and monotone, but there was a small crack in his voice as he said the word home. He sounded broken.

Max nodded and raced up to Jase's room, freezing at the doorway. He had been the first one to run from the cave; abandoning his best friend to a fate worse than death. He forced himself not to think about it, knowing Jase would slap some sense into him if he were there. But Jase wasn't there.

The door creaked as Max pushed it open. He would have laughed at the mess in the room if Jason was there for him to laugh at. Clothes were strewn across the room as if Jase hadn't been able to decide what to wear, and graph paper was spinning around the room like confetti thanks to the ceiling fan he'd forgotten to turn off. Max went back to the task at hand and took the small flip-phone from Jase's nightstand. He ran back to give it to Percy, unable to be in Jase's room any longer.

Percy nodded in thanks when he was handed the phone. He took a deep breath, then exited into the hallway to make a call.

The phone rang four times before anybody picked up.

"Hello?"

"Mom," Percy didn't know what else to say.

"Percy! Thank the gods your ok! Is Annabeth there, and the kids? When are you coming home?"

Percy was glad his mother couldn't see his tears right now.

"Almost everybody. Mom, something happened." He let out a loose sob.

"Oh no, honey...Who is it?"

Percy didn't know how to tell her, but he knew she needed to know. He swallowed another cry that was building in his throat.

"Mom, it's Jason. My Jase, he…"

He heard a short gasp and silence as Sally apparently clasped her hand over her mouth. He wished she were here to hold him and tell him it would be alright. Percy didn't want talk tell her what happened, but she deserved to know. She didn't know Percy had fallen until Tartarus until he got out, so she deserved to know this time. And it wasn't likely there would be a time when Jase got out.

"He's in, Mom he's in Tartarus. My boy is in Tartarus," Percy sobbed. If anybody else were listening, they would be able to tell the mother and son's cries apart.

Piper found him in the hallway, crying on the phone. She didn't say a word, she just sat down beside her best friend and rested her head on his shoulder in a form of comfort.

Casey didn't speak for a week. When they'd arrived back on the boat, nobody was in the mood to celebrate. Annabeth cried, not tears of joy, as she was reunited with her two youngest children. When Adora was finally told what had happened, by her father, she didn't make a sound. Silent tears fell from the five-year-old's stormy eyes. She only said four words,

"But he isn't dead,"

Nobody could correct her, but nobody could agree. Percy held her, rocking back and forth in silence, for hours. He still hadn't processed what had happened. Annabeth had tried to counsel him, but she was broken. She curled Oscar into her arms, who was no longer asleep. His bright eyes wandered around the room, as if looking for somebody. Somebody his mother knew he wouldn't find. As she looked into Oscar's eyes, she couldn't help but remember when she held Jason as a baby. Just a small baby boy with a tuft of blonde hair and shining sea green eyes. He was strong, Annabeth remembered the grip he'd had on her finger when he was just an hour old.

What if Oscar had to grow up without a brother? Annabeth had always imagined her boys in the future, Jase teaching Oscar how to fight, Percy watching over them with a loving gaze. Now she saw Oscar, fighting alone under a darkened sky, the faded scene of Camp Half Blood behind him. Annabeth, trying as she might, couldn't see Jason when she thought of the future. She'd been to Tartarus, and she didn't have faith that anybody could survive that place.

Without her watchful brother at her side, Casey would be sure to go down in any fight too harsh. Casey knew this, but it didn't bother her. If Jason wasn't there, then Elysiam didn't seem to be a terrible option. At least she would be able to see him again.

She wasn't sure that he was dead, but she was having difficulties convincing herself otherwise. Deep inside, something had shattered. May it be her will, her courage, her heart, Casey did not know. She didn't feel that there was anything left of her. She wasn't a shell, she was the long dead snail that had once occupied the shell. Not only had her big brother, her best friend and closest confidant, fallen into Tartarus, he had done it willingly. Part of her was angry with him, angry that he had gone and left her like that. But part of her was angry at herself. She should have been there to hold him back, or at least close enough to jump in after him.

Casey was terrified. She was scared for her brother's life, and of what her own would be without him. She tried to imagine waking up at home without Jase's cheerful whistle, or having a birthday without her brother making those terrible looking blueberry pancakes that somehow tasted better than ambrosia. A sob caught in her throat. She relied on her big brother, she depended on him. If he weren't in Tartarus, he would be beside her now, comforting her and telling her it would be alright with some cheesy joke. He'd come by late at night when he knew she wouldn't be sleeping and sneak her a small slice of blue cake, which Casey now realized she may never know how he got.

They had arrived at Camp a week after it happened. At first, the campers had been overjoyed. Chiron had even cried in relief. But not after they heard what had happened in Greece. From Jase's cabin on the boat, Casey could hear the campers' anguished cries. She could barely tell them apart from her own. Jason may have been her big brother, but he played the same figure to every kid at Camp Half Blood. And they just found out that he jumped into Tartarus after a kid they'd never even met.

Chiron wondered how long they would last. When Percy and Annabeth fell, the entire camp was devastated. But most of the kids at camp had grown up with Jason Jackson as their supervisor, teacher, and friend. He was a big brother to more than just the Jackson siblings.

Casey didn't leave the Argo 3, but she stood at its bow and looked over the edge, watching Camp's reactions with a feeling of dread filling her stomach.

The worst part about losing somebody you love is that you lose them every day all over again. There is no forgetting what happened, there's no way to move on when somebody means that much to you.

 **(Hey peeps! I know I haven't been updating lately but I've been really busy with finals… Anyway, I'm going to switch to weekly updates instead of daily. So, the next chapter will come next Friday! Also, what do you guys really want to see happen to Jase/Charlie and everybody else on the outside? I'm open to requests!**

 **Also, I'll give shoutout to the person with the most creative answer 3 Thanks!)**


	34. Let's talk about it

Damasen's hut became like a home to us. We ended up staying much longer than a few days. It was what I could only guess to be about three weeks and we were still working on Charlie's training. Bob had even stepped in, and Charlie responded to his form of fighting (SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP) better than my own method (From Chiron himself.) Well, Charlie _was_ half titan.

Damasen reminded me a lot of Chiron. He gave tips on Charlie's training, but also insisted that mental training was just as important, if not more important, than our physical training. He worked with Charlie and I on our mental capabilities. He confronted Charlie about his frustration issues and taught him how to use it to his advantage during a fight.

"Confidence is your biggest strength, but it is also your biggest weakness," he advised.

Charlie stared at him with what I'd describe as a _what_ expression. "Great, so confidence is good and bad. So, how is it my strength if it's my weakness and how can I use it?" he asked.

"By learning the difference between confidence and imposed immortality," Damasen answered. "You must be confident, or you will not allow yourself to gain an upperhand in the fight. While keeping this in mind, you must also know that you are not impossible to defeat. Always assume that your opponent is stronger than you, and anticipate the fight to run in your opponent's favor."

"Oh great, so have faith that I will die. That sounds like a great idea." Charlie's sarcasm wasn't hard to detect, but Bob didn't notice it. The titan nodded in agreement.

"But," Damasen overthrew Charlie's sarcasm with more advice, "Have _confidence_ that you can come out on top. Not that you _will_ win, but that you _can_."

The look on Charlie's face showed that he finally understood what Damasen was saying. The advice helped me too, not just Charlie. We could escape. I didn't believe for sure that we _would_ , but that we _could_. If we fought hard enough. We could get out, but we had to earn it.

"Let's go hunt monsters!" Bob said, grabbing his mop to kill his boredom. He and Charlie had been going out almost every day so Charlie could try and kill a monster. So far, Bob had to step in and save him each time. Charlie jumped from his chair and pointed the new sword Bob had made him at me in a strangely affectionate way to say goodbye.

They left me behind, shaking my head with an amused smile. Damasen stood from the table where he had been teaching us and moved to his makeshift little kitchen. I say little, but that's compared to Damasen. It was enormous to me.

"Come," Damasen beckoned me forward. I hurriedly got up and joined him. "Help me with this." He motioned toward the herbs he was cutting up for his famous soup. I pulled a chair up and stood on it so I could reach his countertop. His knife was made of a sharpened rock (very sharp, trust me) with a wooden handle. It was about as big as a small sword but I managed. After I cut the vegetables, he had me tend to the soup as it boiled. I used to go out with Charlie and Bob until I realized that Bob could keep Charlie safe. I still watched them out the window above the counter, just to be sure. But I liked my talks with Damasen. He offered advice for everything I had to ask and more. He had a way of easing my worries. Today, we were talking about Charlie.

"We are in a place that steals all happiness. Your parents came through here and I heard laughter for the first time. It was a strange foreign sound here. But it was in its own way, defeating a part of Tartarus. If you had a chance at a real love up in the outside world, nothing would stop you from eventually falling into it," he said. He continued with, "But here, what is to stop you? Your nerves should be saved for your environment, not your heart."

I smiled. "Thank you, Damasen."

He nodded and began serving the soup into bowls. I liked helping Damasen cook. My dad actually enjoyed cooking, he used it as a therapeutic way to deal with Tartarus by working in New Rome's kitchens. Working with Damasen reminded me of that. Of my dad.

"You will see them again." Damasen seemed to read my mind.

"What happened to can vs will?" I joked.

He smiled sadly but didn't respond. He gazed out the window and stood perfectly still. I went to the bed and belly flopped with a groan.

"Jase, I did it!" Charlie burst into the cabin, tossing his sword onto the bed.

I turned around with a grin. "You did? I'm so proud!"

He jumped into my arms and I kissed him in congratulations. We'd been doing a lot of that lately. A few nights after we got to Damasen's hut, we'd finally talked about what happened…

" _You kissed me," Charlie said plainly._

 _I didn't let my expression show how nervous his statement made me. "I did." I answered in the same voice._

 _Charlie smiled and my nerves somehow melted. I wasn't nervous anymore, just feeling anticipation for something I couldn't name. "Are you ok with that?" I asked gingerly._

" _I am." He moved his hand atop mine as some sort of monster screeched in the distance. It was very romantic._

" _Me too."_

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! PS, WHAT ELSE DO YOU GUYS WANT TO SEE? ALSO, I'D LIKE TO THANK PuddlePirATEpro FOR THEIR SUGGESTION TO HAVE THE CHARACTERS SEND MESSAGES BACK AND FORTH FROM CAMP. I MAY NOT HAVE DONE THAT EXACTLY, BUT IT GAVE ME A PROBABLY BAD IDEA FOR LATER ON... MWAHAHAH LOVE YOU GUYS!

-AUTHOR


	35. Split

"I'm just a demigod, Bob. That thing will kill me, I think you oughta grab it," I said, motioning towards the herbs that Bob and I were collecting.

"Oh," Bob scratched his head. "Right." He picked up the plant and added it to our stash. He froze, then tilted his head as if he were listening to something.

"What is it?" I whispered. I got down low and took my dagger from the sheath at my side.

"Titans." Bob swung his broom low to the ground slowly as if preparing for a fight. I knew the Titans were his brothers. Bob's expression was cold, angry. Like a _bad_ titan. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the hut. "Titans," he repeated. Damasen turned around instantly with his weapon at his side. He looked ready to abandon his sheep and jump into a fight.

I stepped between him and the door. "Wait, this is our chance!" I said. Neither Bob or Damasen reacted. Charlie did.

"We can follow them to the crack," he rephrased.

Damasen lowered his weapons, as did Bob. If we wanted to follow these titans, we had to leave immediately. We couldn't miss this chance. Damasen looked around the hut that had been his home for so many years. Then, he looked back to Charlie and I. He grabbed a large bag of herbs and other supplies that he'd gathered when we'd first told him about the crack. "We'd better hurry," he said.

Charlie smiled and picked up the backpack Damasen had made us and threw it at me. Bob didn't have a backpack, so he was ready to go. Small Bob had taken an attachment to Charlie and now nested his his curly mop of hair. Damasen grabbed a few odds and ends that sat around the hut as we left. He almost seemed to be procrastinating, even though he knew we were running out of time. I kept turning back to look at the hut as we got further away. Once we caught up to the titans, I made a mental picture of the hut we'd called home for the past month, probably longer. I was actually going to miss that drakon bone hut. Damasen rested a hand on my shoulder (which was difficult seeing as his hand was bigger than my face) as if to tell me he knew how I felt. This had been his home much longer than it had been mine. Charlie's hand guided me back to our path and hopefully, towards home.

We'd been walking for awhile (hard to tell how long) when I began to wish we'd made some soup before we left. The titans didn't stop for breaks so we nearly lost them many times when Charlie or I grew tired. We'd been putting off drinking the fire water but we both knew we'd have to stop soon. The titans didn't stop that night to sleep, they didn't even seem tired. Charlie and I on the other hand, we were leaning on each other to stay awake. It must have been days because usually I didn't depend so highly on sleep. I felt like I'd been walking for multiple days and I caught my eyes dropping many times. There was nothing to describe or think about as we walked. The scenery never changed, monsters didn't attack because we were with a giant and a titan. Damasen thought they may attract monster but apparently it was the other way around.

"I feel like we're being watched," Charlie said. We didn't talk much because we all knew how good titans' hearing was, but Charlie just couldn't help himself.

"It's Tartarus, of course you feel like you're being watched. This place literally brings nightmares to life," I sarcastically whispered back. He stopped talking after that. Every time Charlie got close to falling asleep he would start a fire in his hands and focus on making it dance across his fingertips. I didn't have the ability to entertain myself, so I watched Charlie's fire. It made me even more tired. It would dance, growing and shrinking in size. Sometimes he even got the fire to look like the small outline of a person and they would dance so elegantly along his fingers.

Next thing I knew, I fell face first into the ground. I woke up the moment my face made contact with the floor and cursed almost too loudly.

"Jase!" Charlie hissed in concern and held me up.

"I'm up, I'm awake!" I promised.

"Yeah, and you gave yourself a bloody nose to get there."

I raised my fingers to my face and grimaced when they pulled away red. The taste was all too familiar to me.

"Friends need to stop?" Bob asked. Charlie scoffed as if to say _yeah, thanks for noticing_

"No, I can keep going," I lied.

"No, he can't. _We_ can't," Charlie said. I sighed but didn't disagree. The titans were fading into the distance. I could tell they were beginning to notice us, but they hadn't yet figured out if they wanted to attack.

"Go," I suddenly said. Charlie saw the titans disappearing, then nodded quickly.

"Jason, Charlie, we have been through much together. I will not leave you behind," Damasen put his foot down.

I gave him a small smile. "Won't, or can't?" I turned his own logic against him. Damasen didn't have an answer. Or he might have, but he didn't give it to me.

"We owe it to you, we owe you more than this. You saved us, provided us with a home and food and training and even new shoes. Your opportunity is fading quickly, you'd better hurry," Charlie stepped in. I knew our chances of surviving dwindled if we split up from Bob and Damasen, but I was ok with that. I wanted them to get out more than I wanted myself to.

"No leave friends behind." Bob frowned.

I smiled at him and pointed towards the titans. "You have to go. Charlie and I can find another way. There are endless monsters in here all trying to get out, we can follow them. We need to stop, we need rest. And we're going to continue to need rest throughout the rest of our journey. If you're with us, we'll attract more monsters and put you in danger. We can and we _will_ get out," I smiled slyly at Damasen as I spoke. "But it won't be by your side. When you get out, go to make a little farm and raise sheep, look up at the stars every night. Send a message to Camp Half Blood telling them where you are and when we get home, we'll find you," I promised. Damasen looked at me and I passed him a silent message. He knew I would never forgive myself if they didn't get out. If Charlie and I survived and found that Bob and Damasen were still in here, I would probably jump back in to find them. He knew that they needed to go. For my sake and for theirs.

"We must hurry." He turned to leave but came back to give me a hug. For a giant, it was a pretty weak hug. Probably because he didn't want to kill me. Bob and Charlie joined in on the hug and I felt safe, for just a moment. Small Bob licked the tears off Charlie's face to say goodbye. "Stay safe, Jason. Remember what you have learned. You will survive this," Damasen whispered to me.

"I can survive this."

 _AU: Would you guys like more chapters of Charlie and Jase's adventures, or would you rather see more about what's happening in the outside world?_


	36. Return to Camp

OUTSIDE POV

They didn't reach Camp for weeks after _it_ happened. Nobody was in any particular rush to get home and share the news. They were attacked five separate times in the first week, all by cyclops. But none of them lasted long, not with the fury Percy exhibited in each fight. They were on the Argo for a month, with no news of Jase or Charlie.

"Casey, stay in the cabins. At least for now," he said before each fight.

"Dad, I can help!"

"We don't need help, this will only take a minute." Percy knew his daughter's fighting style was slightly reckless. She always fought more recklessly when she was angry. So he had her stay behind.

Casey slammed the door behind her, a childish reaction really. She didn't care. She wanted to get out there, to kill something. She wanted something to blame. Something to fight.

There was a knock at her door. She ignored it. Katrina sighed and opened the door anyway, not saying a word as she sat down besides Casey.

"Casey, how you holding up?" she asked. Casey didn't react; she was too busy staring at the ground with an angry expression. "Casey, I know you're angry. I know you're upset, and I know there's nothing I can do about it. But you can't stay like this forever!"

"Why not?" Casey finally spoke.

Kat sighed. "Because it's not what Jase would have wanted."

"Well Jase isn't here, is he?" She began to cry, although it wasn't on purpose. She'd done that a lot these days. "How do you know what he would want if he's not even here to tell you?"

Katrina wrapped an arm around her and didn't say a word. Just like Jase would do.

The ship suddenly rocked with another attack. This time, Casey ignored her dad.

"I'm helping," She said, not leaving room for argument as she grabbed my sword and fled. Kat sighed and ran after her. She knew better than to try to convince Casey otherwise. When Casey emerged on deck she found yet another cyclops. Piper and uncle Frank were the only ones fighting it. They'd had so many attacks lately that they'd started taking shifts. None of the kids were allowed to participate in these fights.

Casey leapt onto the deck and landed her first blow to the back side of the cyclops. It hadn't been suspecting the attack so it spun around in surprise. Kat stood at the bow but didn't join the fight. She knew Casey could-and needed-to handle it herself.

There was only one cyclops this time, so she didn't need to worry about protecting myself as much as usual. Piper and Frank would have stepped in if the situation became too drastic.

Casey yelled with every slash, and even after it was dead she kept stabbing until it burst into dust. She wanted to drop to her knees and cry, but there were too many people around. She wouldn't feel safe to cry until my brother was here with me. She wouldn't feel safe until he was here to protect me. She didn't _need_ his protection, She just wanted it.

"Casey what are you doing?!" Percy yelled as he emerged on deck. His shirt was dotted with water. She hadn't noticed that it had started to rain.

"I'm fighting, not that hard to understand," Casey retorted. She shoved the sword back into its sheath and walked past her dad. Percy grabbed her arm and forced her to turn around.

"Casey Zoe Jackson I told you to stay in the cabins! What about that is hard to understand?" he yelled.

She was surprised by the sternness in his voice. He was never this hard on any of the kids. But that was before _it_ happened.

"What I don't understand? I don't understand why you're keeping me on lockdown when I can help!" she yelled back.

"Because you're reckless!"

" _I'm_ reckless! I'm the only sane person here! We can't just ignore what's happening! Don't you think it's at least a little suspicious that we've been attacked five times in the past week by the same monsters? Or do you just not care?!"

"Casey, stop it!"

"Or is it just because Jason isn't here that it doesn't matter anymore?"

"Casey, stop talking!"

"You still have three kids left, you know!"

"Casey, stop!"

"He's dead!"

Neither one of them spoke. Casey regretted the words the second they came from her mouth. The others had wandered on deck to see what the commotion was. Even Annabeth didn't interrupt the father and daughter fight.

"Jase is dead?" Adora asked, her voice was quiet.

Casey and Percy both turned. Her anger dissipated in an instant. Adora shouldn't have heard that. Casey knew she shouldn't have said it. She picked her sister up then went back to the cabins. She ignored her dad calling my name.

"No, he's not. I'm sorry, Dora. I shouldn't have said that. Jase wouldn't do that to us," she promised. But Casey doubted herself more than she'd admit. She saw it herself; he didn't even glance back at her when he jumped. Had he even considered what would happen to the rest of his family, what would happen to _her_ when he jumped? Had he lived long enough to regret it?

"Is Jase going to come home?" Adora asked.

Casey didn't know how to answer her. Her instinct told her no, and her heart was too broken to come with any response.

Instead, she changed the subject. "Get some sleep," she said. "We're going to port tomorrow, you'll need your energy if you want to come with us."

Adora nodded, obviously noting the change of subject. She was smarter than she looked. Casey kissed the top of her head and tucked her in. It was clear that Adora was uncomfortable. Casey didn't ask why; she already knew. Jase was the official bedtime guy. It started when dad went off on a quest with mom, so Jase tucked us all in. Since then, Adora didn't have it any other way. Casey wasn't Jase. She didn't tell her a story and make her laugh. She couldn't talk her into calmness when nightmares struck. But she could remind her of what her was doubting in herself.

"Remember Jase loves you, Adora. He is going to do whatever it takes to come back to you. And someday, he'll be the one to tuck you in again," she promised. she crossed my fingers behind my back, just in case she was wrong. she wanted to believe he was alive; she really did. But she'd heard the stories of what happens down there. It was likely he didn't even survive the initial fall. Casey tried to remind herself that Jase had always been the smartest out of the kids. If anybody could survive Tartarus, it was him.

 _AU: To the person who asked about updates...I update every Friday unless I forget then I update on Saturdays._

 _I've been getting a lot of negative comments lately, so I'd like to apologize for the improper grammar and the confusing format. I'm still learning and I'm trying my best._

 _And a note to the person who mentioned that it seemed like I was attempting to make Jase and Charlie gay... Um, duh. Why do you think I made them kiss :)_

 _I love all of your ideas and I'm looking forward to getting new creative prompts from you guys! Thanks :)_


	37. Cursed

I felt more sadness than I'd felt in a long time when I watched Bob and Damasen go. Charlie stared longingly towards their two small figures in the distance. We would have stood there for days, but we were both exhausted, and I could hear hellhounds in the distance.

There wasn't much cover in the endless field we found ourselves in. We came across a large jagged boulder and decided it would have to do. It wasn't a very safe place to hide, but Charlie and I were both too exhausted to care. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew we'd be attacked if we let our guard down. But my sleep-deprived brain decided that we'd be fine. I didn't care how uncomfortable it was, I fell asleep on the rock. Charlie fell asleep on my chest and I wrapped one arm around him.

I woke from a familiar, yet more urgent, tug in my gut I looked around by there wasn't a drop of water in sight. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Where had this come from? It wasn't the same pain that controlling the lava brought. It was familiar. It was water. But it wasn't like any other time I'd controlled the water. It was as if it was calling to me.

Danger

Danger

Danger

I held out my arms and concentrated, unsure of what the result was. I felt the water, wherever it was, twisting and churning until it became what felt like an underwater tornado (trust me, I spent two years figuring out how to create them.) The pressure began to make my brain feel like it was going to explode, then suddenly it all went calm. Silent. There were no alarms, no urgent gut feeling, no pull. But there was exhaustion. I had never been to tired after using my powers before. I didn't get a chance to ponder this before I passed out.

 _Thank you_

When I woke up, it wasn't to anything peaceful. I shook Charlie awake once I heard monster screams. I jumped to my feet with my mom's dagger at my side but I wasn't sure what to do at first. I wasn't awake yet, my senses were numb.

I can only describe them as demons. They were black and shaggy looking with bright red piercing eyes.

I tried to place the creatures attacking us but I didn't recognize them. The figure between me whined and groaned until he had fully woken up. Charlie gasped as he stood up and immediately raised his sword.

"The arai," he whispered.

I felt my heart skip a beat. "How do you know?" I asked unsurely. I wanted to believe that he was wrong, but the beasts matched my parents descriptions exactly. I prayed that they were something else, anything else. Any other creature might be manageable, but not even my parents could defeat the arai. They both nearly died, and if it weren't for Bob…

But we didn't have Bob. We had at least two broken bones and a limited ability to stay awake.

"My nightmare, this is what it was about." Charlie inched closer to me. I thought back to the nightmare he'd had when we first met Bob. He'd never told me what it was about, all I knew was that he ended up alone.

"It'll be ok," I whispered. I wasn't going to leave him alone. Suddenly, the arai rushed towards us. Their feet didn't touch the ground but their wings didn't move either.

"Charlie, we can't fight them," I pushed him behind me and took a few steps backwards.

"I know! So, let's run!" he yelled. It was strange to have Charlie to know more about the Greek monster than I did. He grabbed my hand and pulled me away. I stumbled slightly but didn't let my feet stop me from running this time.

"RUN!" I don't even know which one of us was the one yelling. I didn't know where we were going. I didn't care. Nothing could stop me.

 _We're coming_

I froze in my tracks. Fear overcame me and I found myself unable to move. Flashbacks from the nightmare I'd had on the Argo filled my mind.

"Jase, what are you doing?! We have to go!" Charlie tried to pull me away and I finally arrived back to my senses. I pushed Charlie forward, away from the arai, and ran after him because my life _did_ depend on it.

An arai jumped into our path and Charlie swung. "Charlie, don't!" I screamed and tried to pull him back but it was too late. My hands were wrapped around his waist when the arai evaporated. For a moment, Charlie was ok. He looked back at me with fearful puppy-dog eyes and for just that moment, I thought he'd be fine. He hadn't fought enough monsters to be cursed, right? Then, his eyes grew wide and he clutched his hands together. His hands went blue. Ice began forming on his lips and his eyebrows grew frosty. He grew cold in my hands. My dad had fought many curses, but he hadn't gotten a curse that completely disabled him like this.

"I-Imaa so-o, so cold-d," he shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, then fell to a ground in a ball.

The Arai were closing in around us. I lifted my dagger in warning but knew I couldn't fight. Charlie was growing still, the only movement being his shivering. Either I sit by and let them kill the both of us, or I fight and maybe Charlie lives. Not really a question. I let out a cry of anger and swung.

The first curse was knocked me off my feet-literally. I knew what it was instantly. When fighting a larger opponent, the first thing I do is immobilize them. Usually, I do this by slicing my sword across their legs, forcing them to their knees.

Now, it was happening to me. The feeling of a sword blade (something I was all too familiar with it) sliced across my shins, where my armor usually was. I dropped to my hands and knees. Another arai came upon me and I flicked my dagger, not caring for the consequences.

This time, I heard a distinctive snap. I heard the snap before I felt the pain, and before I saw the bone of my right elbow protrude from my body. I screamed and fell to the ground. I couldn't look at it or I thought I might puke. Two of the arai continued towards me while three more of them approached Charlie, who had gone still. My sword arm was my left arm, and thankfully still intact. I took two arai with one swing, they didn't try to avoid my sword. I felt a new stabbing pain in my chest and placed my hand quickly to the new bloody wound before continuing on. Charlie couldn't fight for himself. And even if he could, I didn't want him to. I noted that I didn't feel the curse until a few seconds after the kill, so if I worked quickly I'd have time to kill all three surrounding Charlie until I got my punishment.

The first curse caused a poking pain in my eyes before my vision went suddenly. The pain became harsher, then my vision failed completely. I knew Charlie was still on the ground so I kept swinging.

The next curse caused a hydra-like burning sensation in my throat.

The last one immobilized me completely. I fell to the ground with a feeling of helplessness. I hated being helpless. I couldn't see what was happening, I couldn't hear Charlie, and I couldn't move.

 _We're coming, Jason Jackson_

The fear returned. They were coming and there was nothing I could do. The aria had returned.

"Stop! Leave us, leave him alone!"

 _We're coming_

My vision returned with a painful jab. Every time I blinked it hurt more and more. Everything was foggy and unclear. The black hags that were attacking us now looked like wispy white ghosts. Just like my nightmare. I grabbed Charlie, determined to keep him near. His cold body scared me more than the arai. He felt dead. I felt my fingers tightening around him.

Then, he disappeared. He was gone. Vanished. I felt around madly, but he was nowhere to be found. I was still blind, so I crawled across the ground like velma without her glasses.

My heart stopped and I somehow rose to my knees. Anger, terror, many other emotions that I didn't have the ability to name. I turned towards the arai and screamed at them.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" They didn't answer, but grew closer and closer.

I could taste blood in my mouth. Beneath my fingers, something was moving. It felt like skin. Sticky, bloody. Tartarus was alive, I could feel him beneath me. I pulled my hands into fists and punched the ground with my all my might, cursing it for what it had done to us.

 _We're coming, we're coming_

The eerie voice sent a chill down my spine. I tried to stand but the pain in my shins became more prominent. My vision was blurry as if it were once again failing.

 _We're coming, Jason. We're coming, we're coming._

Fear spiked through my heart and I tried to drag myself away. A wispy white figure appeared beside me, its face a mere inch from my own.

 _We're coming, we're always coming. We're coming, Jason._

I wanted to run, to fight, but something kept me in place. No, not something. Some _one_.

"What did you do with him!" I felt myself screaming, sending pain scorching through my throat. Charlie had to be somewhere close, right? I wondered if I'd be able to get away and find him if I killed the rest of the arai. But I'd killed a lot of monsters. There were a lot of curses yet to go through before the arai were gone.

 _He's gone, Jason. And we're coming for you, we're coming._

Gone? What did it mean, gone? Where was he? He couldn't be dead, I refused to believe that. The arai reached its hand forward, straight through my chest. I suddenly felt so cold, nearly to the point where I couldn't feel at all. I was scared, terrified. I wanted to scream or to cry out but there was nothing to do. Whatever creature was there stroked my cheek with its other hand.

 _We're here._

 _(AU: Yes, I know the update is late...Sorry! Hope you all had a great New Years! What are your resolutions?)_


	38. Cursed: Part 2

"NO!" I screamed, falling backwards onto my already broken arm. "What do want?" I yelled, finally stopping to talk.

 _Choose your curse, Jason Jackson_

I could feel the dagger in my hand. I knew I would die if I raised it to fight. What would my mom do? She must have held this very dagger a million times in battle, what did she do then? She could come up with a way out of everything.

 _Choose your curse, Jason Jackson_

I was the grandchild of Olympian gods. My parents are the strongest demigods in history. They saved the world before it ever had a chance to end. I'd killed monsters older than mankind itself. I've lead large scale battles since I was eleven years old. I was trained by the greatest teacher ever to exist. I'd survived this long, I wasn't going to give up now.

 _You're going to die, choose your curse or we shall choose it for you_

Bob and Damasen had left us no more than a day ago, and I promised them we'd live to see them again. I needed to get up, stand my ground. I needed to find Charlie. But how? The arai were stronger than anything I'd ever faced.

 _You will die_

"Can, not will," I muttered. I couldn't kill them. I couldn't fight them. What else did I have besides fighting?

 _Choose a curse, Jason._

My thoughts went back to my mom. She didn't have powers. When she couldn't fight, she used her brain. She was the smartest person I'd ever met. I'm sure she'd know what to do.

 _Choose a curse or we will_

I listened this time. Choose a curse. They wanted me to choose how I die. No, that's not what they said. They said to _choose a curse_ , so I just needed to find a curse that didn't result in death. But how would I know what I've been cursed with?

 _Choose your curse!_

Casey. When we were preparing for battle, she'd jokingly cursed me. Did that count? I thought back to what she had said, " _I'd curse you to have to talk to your enemy instead of just killing._ " That curse would keep me from killing the arai, but it would also keep the arai from killing me. They would have to talk to me. I didn't like the idea, but it was the only one I had.

"I choose the curse of Casey Jackson!" I said loudly and confidently. Did the curse have an actual name or could I just say the name of the one who cursed me? The arai stopped coming towards me. They looked to each other. It was the first time I'd seen them react to anything, so I hoped I'd said the right thing.

 _We will talk._

So it worked. Now what? How was I supposed to come to reason with these things? I took a deep breath and set my sword down, trying to show a sign of peace. I held my abdomen and tried not to cry in pain. Everything hurt. I couldn't walk because of my legs and I could barely see. Blood oozed past my fingers from the stab wound in my stomach, and my arm was immobile and in too much pain to even look at. I had nothing else to give. I was as good as dead anyway, and I had to get Charlie back.

"What do you want from me?" I finally asked.

 _To curse you_

The arai's mouths didn't open when they spoke. I couldn't even tell where the voice was coming from. I had to remind myself that they couldn't kill me while we were talking.

"Well, this is my curse. What can I do to make this go away?" I just wanted this to be over. I wanted to go home and I never wanted to think about this place again. I wanted to just forget this whole experience. "How do I get Charlie back? I want Charlie and I want to go. What can I do to make that happen?"

The arai seemed to be thinking. They finally settled on something but none of them seemed to like it. If possible, they looked solemn. I'd chosen a curse that forced them to go outside their comfort zone. They had to find something new.

They nodded and the wispy light that sent me into a state of fear came again. It faded as quickly as it had come, and Charlie's body was revealed. I scrambled to him before I could recognize the pain of moving. I took his cold head and placed my lips slowly to his forehead, whispering words of encouragement.

 _You must take the curse in order to take him_

I clung to his shirt. I was scared that they'd take him away again. "What curse?" I asked nervously. Charlie was awake, I could tell by the way his fingers curled around my own.

 _If you want him, you must take the curse of the arai_

The arai have a curse? It couldn't be anything good. I didn't want to admit how terrified I was. Charlie opened his eyes. There were small snowflakes on his eyelashes. I took his hand as he shook his head and held me tightly.

"Don't do it. Don't agree," was the first thing he said. He knew something about this curse, something I didn't know. I turned to the arai.

"What is this curse?" I asked. I'd like to know what I'm getting into before I agree.

 _You take the curse or we take your life_

I glared at them. There wasn't much of a life left for me, I was probably going to die from my injuries anyway.

 _We will also take Charlie Valdez_

I glared even harder and noticed my hand starting to shake in a combination of fear and anger.

 _Take the curse or we -_

"Fine! I'll take your bloody curse!"

Charlie shook his head frantically. I had to look away. Something scared him about me taking this curse, and it scared it me too. But they were going to take Charlie, let alone kill me.

"I said I'll take it!" I shouted.

 _You already have_

They suddenly disappeared, leaving me in a state of confusion. I was scared, don't get me wrong. But I was more confused than anything. The Athena in me wondered why there was nothing to the curse yet.

"I don't get it!"

 _We're coming, Jason. And we'll never stop._

I felt hollow. Their words hit me in a bundle, just fear and terror. I understood what the curse was. The arai took your worst fear and made it a reality. My worst fear was that I would never leave Tartarus. Now, a part of it would always be with me. The arai had just ensured that even if I escaped, which wasn't likely, I would never be free of Tartarus.

 _Your dreams, your every waking hour. We're coming. In the back of your mind. In the corner of your eye. When you think you're safe, remember we're here, and we're coming._

They were gone but I could still hear their voices. "Charlie, do you hear that?" They must still be here somewhere, just out of sight.

 _He can't hear us, Jason._

I spun around to try to find the source of the sound but there was nothing there. They were in my head. I closed my eyes, but I could see them in my mind.

"Jase, open your eyes!" Charlie cupped his still-cold hands around my cheeks. When I finally looked at him he only pulled me into his arms. I was in so much pain, everything hurt. And I was terrified. I felt like I was going to pass out from the pain I was in. We'd only been sleeping for an hour or so when the arai attacked.

"Go to sleep. I'll keep watch," Charlie said softly.

I shook my head. "No," I argued. "What if something happens?"

"Then we're screwed," Charlie shrugged. I stared at him with wide eyes and he chuckled. "I'm joking! If something happens, I'll wake you up. Simple." He smiled reassuringly. "I'm going to clean out your wounds and try to use Damasen's herb things."


	39. Casey has anger issues

They didn't reach Camp for weeks after _it_ happened. Nobody was in any particular rush to get home and share the news. They were attacked five separate times in the first week, all by cyclops. But none of them lasted long, not with the fury Percy exhibited in each fight. They were on the Argo for a month, with no news of Jase or Charlie.

"Casey, stay in the cabins. At least for now," he said before each fight.

"Dad, I can help!"

"We don't need help, this will only take a minute." Percy knew his daughter's fighting style was slightly reckless. She always fought more recklessly when she was angry. So he had her stay behind.

Casey slammed the door behind her, a childish reaction really. She didn't care. She wanted to get out there, to kill something. She wanted something to blame. Something to fight.

There was a knock at her door. She ignored it. Katrina sighed and opened the door anyway, not saying a word as she sat down besides Casey.

"Casey, how you holding up?" she asked. Casey didn't react; she was too busy staring at the ground with an angry expression. "Casey, I know you're angry. I know you're upset, and I know there's nothing I can do about it. But you can't stay like this forever!"

"Why not?" Casey finally spoke.

Kat sighed. "Because it's not what Jase would have wanted."

"Well Jase isn't here, is he?" She began to cry, although it wasn't on purpose. She'd done that a lot these days. "How do you know what he would want if he's not even here to tell you?"

Katrina wrapped an arm around her and didn't say a word. Just like Jase would do.

The ship suddenly rocked with another attack. This time, Casey ignored her dad.

"I'm helping," She said, not leaving room for argument as she grabbed my sword and fled. Kat sighed and ran after her. She knew better than to try to convince Casey otherwise. When Casey emerged on deck she found yet another cyclops. Piper and uncle Frank were the only ones fighting it. They'd had so many attacks lately that they'd started taking shifts. None of the kids were allowed to participate in these fights.

Casey leapt onto the deck and landed her first blow to the back side of the cyclops. It hadn't been suspecting the attack so it spun around in surprise. Kat stood at the bow but didn't join the fight. She knew Casey could-and needed-to handle it herself.

There was only one cyclops this time, so she didn't need to worry about protecting myself as much as usual. Piper and Frank would have stepped in if the situation became too drastic.

Casey yelled with every slash, and even after it was dead she kept stabbing until it burst into dust. She wanted to drop to her knees and cry, but there were too many people around. She wouldn't feel safe to cry until my brother was here with me. She wouldn't feel safe until he was here to protect me. She didn't _need_ his protection, She just wanted it.

"Casey what are you doing?!" Percy yelled as he emerged on deck. His shirt was dotted with water. She hadn't noticed that it had started to rain.

"I'm fighting, not that hard to understand," Casey retorted. She shoved the sword back into its sheath and walked past her dad. Percy grabbed her arm and forced her to turn around.

"Casey Zoe Jackson I told you to stay in the cabins! What about that is hard to understand?" he yelled.

She was surprised by the sternness in his voice. He was never this hard on any of the kids. But that was before _it_ happened.

"What I don't understand? I don't understand why you're keeping me on lockdown when I can help!" she yelled back.

"Because you're reckless!"

" _I'm_ reckless! I'm the only sane person here! We can't just ignore what's happening! Don't you think it's at least a little suspicious that we've been attacked five times in the past week by the same monsters? Or do you just not care?!"

"Casey, stop it!"

"Or is it just because Jason isn't here that it doesn't matter anymore?"

"Casey, stop talking!"

"You still have three kids left, you know!"

"Casey, stop!"

"He's dead!"

Neither one of them spoke. Casey regretted the words the second they came from her mouth. The others had wandered on deck to see what the commotion was. Even Annabeth didn't interrupt the father and daughter fight.

"Jase is dead?" Adora asked, her voice was quiet.

Casey and Percy both turned. Her anger dissipated in an instant. Adora shouldn't have heard that. Casey knew she shouldn't have said it. She picked her sister up then went back to the cabins. She ignored her dad calling my name.

"No, he's not. I'm sorry, Dora. I shouldn't have said that. Jase wouldn't do that to us," she promised. But Casey doubted herself more than she'd admit. She saw it herself; he didn't even glance back at her when he jumped. Had he even considered what would happen to the rest of his family, what would happen to _her_ when he jumped? Had he lived long enough to regret it?

"Is Jase going to come home?" Adora asked.

Casey didn't know how to answer her. Her instinct told her no, and her heart was too broken to come with any response.

Instead, she changed the subject. "Get some sleep," she said. "We're going to port tomorrow, you'll need your energy if you want to come with us."

Adora nodded, obviously noting the change of subject. She was smarter than she looked. Casey kissed the top of her head and tucked her in. It was clear that Adora was uncomfortable. Casey didn't ask why; she already knew. Jase was the official bedtime guy. It started when dad went off on a quest with mom, so Jase tucked us all in. Since then, Adora didn't have it any other way. Casey wasn't Jase. She didn't tell her a story and make her laugh. She couldn't talk her into calmness when nightmares struck. But she could remind her of what her was doubting in herself.

"Remember Jase loves you, Adora. He is going to do whatever it takes to come back to you. And someday, he'll be the one to tuck you in again," she promised. she crossed my fingers behind my back, just in case she was wrong. she wanted to believe he was alive; she really did. But she'd heard the stories of what happens down there. It was likely he didn't even survive the initial fall. Casey tried to remind herself that Jase had always been the smartest out of the kids. If anybody could survive Tartarus, it was him.

((Do you guys want more chapters on the crew thats on the outside, or Jase and Charlie on the inside?)


	40. Medusa

" _Breakfast!" Adora screamed cheerfully in my face. I opened my eyes and saw her grinning from ear to ear, jumping from the bed next to me in our cabin. I breathed in the familiar scent of the ocean as I got up._

" _I'll be there in a minute!" I called. Adora laughed and bounded from the cabin toward the mess hall. She was still wearing her pajamas._

 _I got dressed and followed her out for breakfast. I was out about twenty feet away when I saw Charlie waving at me from the mess hall. Behind him I noticed my parents and siblings eating at the Poseidon table. Well, it wasn't really the Poseidon table, we didn't segregate the tables by godly parents anymore. We just called it the Poseidon table because that's where our family usually sat. My dad lifted his head and grinned at me, his mouth full of blue pancakes. I was only about fifteen feet away now and my hand was raised to wave back at Charlie when a dark figure appeared behind him. Arai. I tried to yell but Charlie couldn't seem to hear me. The aria took a hold of Charlie's head, and twisted. Violently. Snapping his neck._

 _Like the curse I'd already taken, I found myself unable to move. I couldn't run to him, even though I knew it was too late._

 _Flames engulfed the hall around Charlie's limp body. His head hung at a taunting angel. From somewhere in the burning building I could hear Adora screaming. My parents were yelling for each other and for the rest of our family. Casey was screaming my name but I couldn't move to help her. The arai moved swiftly around the hall, killing those who fought or weren't consumed by the flames. I screamed my throat raw and tried to claw my way forward. After there was no more life left, the arai gathered at the charcoaled entrance. There were seven of them._

 _They were coming_

I only blinked steadily when I woke up. A small bead of sweat trickled down the back of my neck and my breathing was heavy enough to alert Charlie that I was awake. He stroked my cheek gently, swiping away tears I didn't even know were there. He didn't ask if I was ok, he didn't ask if I'd slept ok. He rocked me back and forth like I was a child, but I wasn't embarrassed. It was calming.

"Estará bien," he whispered. "Estoy aquí para ti, mi amor."

I didn't understand what he was saying but his words were comforting. He kept speaking in hushed spanish as I tried to stop my tears from reaching an intolerable point.

"They won't all be this bad, right?"

Charlie smiled reassuringly. "Maybe," he said truthfully. He was right. I accepted this curse, so my dreams were probably going to be worse than this. I had to learn to live with it.

"We will get through this, Jase."

"We _can_ ," I corrected with a smile.

Charlie scoffed and rolled his eyes, jokingly punching me. I mockingly glared at him and we began to laugh. We were idiots. Complete idiots. Laughing our mostly-dead asses off in the deepest pits of Hell.

"We've got to go. We've been here too long," Charlie warned. He offered me a hand.

"I think Damasen's herbs really do work," I told him. The wounds on my legs were nearly gone. They were scabbed over, close to being healed.

"I think it was something to do with your doctor too. Have you even noticed that the stab wound in your stomach is gone?" He pressed his hand to my stomach where my wound once was.

"Wow. Great job, Chuck!" I smiled at the twisted white scar that remained. It was a bad memory, but it no longer hurt. "You are my wonderful miracle maker," I said. It had been a week since the Arai's attack, and I still hadn't adjusted to the change.

My dad usually showed up when the situation was most dire, and when he was needed most. I felt like this counted, but he didn't come. Not that I wanted him to be stuck back here, but it kind of destroyed the image that Percy Jackson always came to save the day. With the Kane siblings, Dad was there to save their buts at the beginning of every battle. With Magnus, Dad was this unbeatable hero that even the gods use as a last resort. At this point, my last resort would be to kill myself and hope my soul wasn't trapped in Tartarus forever.

"JJ, what's the name of that one monster with snakes for hair?" Charlie asked, his voice a little too on edge to be a casual question.

"Is there a particular reason why you'd like to know?" I countered.

"And is she known for having a giant scorpion sidekick?" he pointed ahead of us, where Medusa was rounding a corner with an unreasonably large scorpion monster.

 _They'll kill you_

I was too focused in the voices. Charlie dropped to the ground, pulling me with him. I needed to learn to ignore them.

"Don't let her see you!" he hissed.

"No, I was just going to run up and introduce myself!"

"Shut up!"

"Hi, I'm Jase Jackson, my dad killed you and my grandma used your head to turn his step-dad into a statue! Nice to meet you!"

"Shh- wait, what? Are you serious?"

We stopped talking when we realized that we couldn't see Medusa anymore. The scorpion was hurriedly scurrying towards us with its tail raised high and proud.

"Shit!" Charlie cursed. He jumped up and whipped around, slamming right into a tall figure.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Medusa hissed.

Charlie clamped his hand over his eyes and quickly prompted me to close my own by smacking me wildly with his other arm. I hated closing my eyes. The arai swam around my blank field of vision, reaching towards me with their long thin hands.

Back in the real world, I was pushed to the ground. Medusa set her hands almost seductively on my shoulders, letting her long nails dig into my skin. Her snake lunged at my face, leaving small scratches on my cheeks.

"Open your eyes," she whispered. "Just one little peek. Haven't you always wanted to see the woman more beautiful than Athena?"

"No, not really," I admitted as I reached blindly for my weapon. I couldn't tell where Charlie was but I couldn't afford to open my eyes and look.

"Just one look and you won't have to worry about anybody hurting you ever again. No more pain, no more suffering. The evil that surrounds you will finally leave you alone," she prompted.

The idea was nice, but I was smarter than that. If I opened my eyes I would be trapped in Tartarus forever. I held them tightly closed and tried to find any kind of weapon with what little wiggle room I had.

"Open your eyes or I will stab you through the heart with your own sword," she threatened, her voice still as sweet and alluring as before.

"I'm beginning to see why my dad killed you," I said. I heard the snakes jump back and Medusa's grip loosened just enough for me to scramble away. I felt my way around until I found my dagger. Medusa hissed at the sight of the weapon.

"Chase," she whispered.

"Jackson, now," I shot back. I depended on my hearing to locate where she was, but she moved across the ground as if she was floating. I slashed in the direction I thought she was, but hit nothing.

"Be careful, _Jackson_ , that you hit me and not the companion you so carelessly are leaving behind."

Leaving behind? I hadn't gone that far, Charlie was still close. Right?

"Jase?" When he called out, he was not close by.

"Charlie! Stop moving!" I warned.

"Where are you?" he asked.

I felt a breeze against my cheek and swung, missing again. I heard footsteps approaching but I couldn't tell if they were Medusa's or Charlie's.

"Jase, I'm opening my eyes," Charlie said.

"Wait, no!"

There was a cry of alarm and my eyes snapped open. Medusa stood in front of Charlie with her hands around his neck, he had his hand over his eyes. But he wasn't turning to stone. He hadn't looked, yet.

"Just move your fingers, one peek won't hurt," Medusa chided.

There was no way I could attack. She knew exactly where I was and if I went in blind, she would turn Charlie around and I'd run him through instead. Charlie's fingers began to tremble and slowly creep away from his face.

"Charlie! Stop!"

"I, I can't-stop!"

I had just decided that screw it, if I was a statue at least I wouldn't be in pain anymore, when a piercing pain blossomed from my shoulder. I turned around and plunged my sword through the scorpion's back. It wriggled under the blade's pressure but eventually succumbed to its death. When I turned back around, Charlie's hand was stiff at his side, his eyes were not yet open.

The poison in my shoulder seeped into the rest of my body and I dropped to my knees. My vision went blurry. In one last attempt, I raised my hands and summoned all the power I could muster. There was no water, no pull in my gut, but there was the last ditch attempt of a dying demigod.

Medusa froze. The snakes on her head stopped moving and she moved away from Charlie as if pulled by an invisible barrier. Charlie dropped to the ground but didn't open his eyes.

"Jase, what's going on?"

I didn't answer. Medusa sunk to her knees. Green oozing blood seeped from her mouth and eyes, and it took me a moment to realize that I was the reason. A dark power flowed through me as if it had been there all along. I felt myself rise to my feet and take in a deep breath of undying energy. The poison literally flowed back out of the wound from which it had came.

Charlie's eyes were open now, he was staring at Medusa, who was writhing on the ground. This was wrong, this was so wrong. I tried to stop, but I couldn't. Shadows darker than any night I'd ever seen leaked from my fingertips and swirled on the ground at my feet.

 _Feel the power, Jason_

 _Imagine what you could do with this power_

"Charlie, help!" I cried, hoping he'd understand. Charlie ran forward and grabbed my wrists. His face was inches from my own.

"Jase, you can stop this. You are stronger than the power within you. You can fight this, Jason!"

 _You can't fight this, Jason_

I couldn't. The power was trying to latch onto Charlie now. I knew if it did, it would kill him. I pointed at my mom's dagger and he quickly brought it to me, not knowing my intentions.

"Charlie, I've got to stop this," I said.

"I know! Just focus on your breathing, don't let it consume you. You need a distraction; think about math!"

He was right. I did need a distraction. With what little self control I had left, I took the dagger and stabbed myself in the leg.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

The power let go when the pain struck me. I groaned and fell back, hitting my head on the rocks. I let my hand drop from the dagger. I could see Charlie above me, frantically yelling and waving his arms about. My vision was fading, and I couldn't hear him clearly anymore.

"What are you doing? Oh no, don't fall asleep. Jason, don't fall asleep!"

When I woke up, I couldn't decipher whether or not I was still sleeping. There were still screams echoing in my mind from the nightmare I'd just faced.

"Jase, it's ok. I'm right here, we're ok," Charlie soothed, taking my wrist and pulling me into his lap. He ran his fingers through my hair.

"Charlie, what I did, I couldn't control it. I couldn't stop."

"Yeah," Charlie scoffed, "I noticed. Do you know how hard it was to stop the bleeding? I think you must have hit an artery or three," he joked.

"I'm sorry."

"Jase, don't apologize. You saved my life, you saved us both. It's in the past. But let's try not to do that again. Now, tell me what happened," he quietly urged.

"I don't know. I was controlling her blood, I think. I was killing her from the inside. The arai were helping me, in a way, they were controlling the power and telling me to keep going. But I couldn't control it, not at all. Once Medusa was dead, the arai latched onto you. That's when I asked for the dagger, before they made me kill you," I explained.

Charlie was silent. He didn't jump away from me like I'd expected. He gripped my hand tightly and placed a kiss on the top of my head.

"We can control this, Jase."

(Sorry for the late chapter! Hope you guys are enjoying, and I'd love to hear more suggestions for what you'd like to see next!) :)


	41. Sing for me

I knew a bit about Tartarus. I knew that Medusa was a pain in the ass and much more convincing than she was played out to be. I knew there was a small drakon bone hut and a few abandon sheep (Damasen killed most of them for food but there was one or two left) and that the monsters were intolerable. I'd heard before that the hundred-handed Hecatonchires were somewhere down here too, imprisoned and forced to work. Not sure if they were still here, but the small forge-like camp Charlie and I found suggested they might be. The camp was guarded by large spiked rock walls with lava flowing from the cracks. A leathery winged monster with a long first whip walked around the inside with an angry scowl. Every once in awhile she would whip one of the hundred handed. My parents told me she was buried under a pile of rocks at Camp Half Blood. Apparently she ended up here again.

 _She came back just for you_

"I didn't think they were still here," I said. Charlie shushed me as the whip carrying monster (she must be Campe) turned towards us sharply.

"Not good," he whispered. I nodded in agreement and pulled him further down so she wouldn't see us. "We should help them escape. They don't deserve to live like this. Nobody does." The look in his eye told me he was serious, but the idea was insane.

"You're not kidding, are you?"

"Nope."

I groaned and facepalmed before glancing back over my shoulder at the whip-wielding monster.

 _You can't defeat her_

"We were just nearly killed by Medusa and her scorpion pet like a week ago, and now you want to try and go defeat one of the most powerful monsters that exists?"

"I guess so." He looked determined. I had a feeling he was going to try whether I helped him or not. It's not like I could say no to that face of his anyway.

 _He will be the death of you_

"You distract," I finally succumbed.

"Why do _I_ have to be the distraction?" Charlie whined.

I rolled my eyes. "Do you want to try and break these guys out?"

"...no."

"That's what I thought. You're the distraction."

Charlie groaned and rolled his shoulders as he lit his hands on fire. "Hurry up," he prompted. Before he left, I grabbed the cut collar of his shirt and pulled his lips to mine for a short moment.

"Just in case," I told him. My dad used to say that he kissed Mom before every battle because you never knew which one would be your last, and he also really liked kissing her.

Charlie smiled and ran off, waving his hands in the air wildly. "Help! Help!" he cried dramatically. I rolled my eyes and waited for Kampe to go after him. While Charlie ran around acting like some helpless tourist, I ran to see what I could do about the Hecatoncheires.

"Hey!" I whisper yelled. A few of the giants turned their heads, but none of them seemed very interested in me. "Hello? Can you even hear me? I'm here to get you out!"

I think one of them scoffed. I groaned and ran into the camp. There was nothing guarding the gates, but the Hecatonchires were broken.

 _You will be too_

I took my dagger and tried slicing through their chains. Surprisingly, it actually worked. But the giant stepped away from me once his ankles were free. It was as if he wanted to stay here forever.

"What are you doing? I can help you!"

"You can get us killed, again," came a gravelly voice. They didn't even turn their heads to look at me.

"Or you could survive!"

They didn't respond. None of the Hecatoncheires even considered it. I glanced back at Charlie, who was still running around like a madman and screaming for a taxi. I rolled my eyes. The dagger had worked, so I was going to use it. Even if they didn't want my help. I worked quickly, cutting all the chains on every one of the giants. By the time I had finished, Charlie had gone quiet.

 _He's dead_

My stomach filled with dread and I slowly turned around with my dagger raised. I couldn't see Charlie anywhere. I didn't see Campe either. I slowly crept forward, peaking around every corner. One of the giants dropped it's hammer and I whipped around. When I faced forward again, Campe was standing in front of me. She held Charlie at the scruff of his neck and had one hand clamped over his mouth. She threw him to the ground in disgust. Charlie scrambled to his feet and ran to my side. I didn't notice my hand immediately reach out for his as I pulled him behind me. Campe carefully let her eyes skim across the broken chains of her captures. She raised her whip.

"Sing for me!" she screamed. The whip stung, and I cried out when it cut my skin. I pressed my hand over the slash on my chest as Charlie and I ran away. We hid under one of the workshop tables and crawled for freedom. She slowly followed us, brandishing her whip and terrifying any giants in her path.

"I said sing for me!" she repeated with a manic laugh. The Hecatoncheires screamed and wailed, satisfying the monster's rage for a short moment.

"Screams are a melody, child. Listen to your own and free the song with in, allow me to break it." She aimed the whip at us again but Charlie jumped across me and stuck his hands out.

"Shit!" he cursed as the leather weapon sliced open the skin on his palms. I grabbed his wrist and yanked him out of the line of fire before the whip came down again.

"This song sucks!" Charlie hissed.

"I think it's what she gets her energy from. Have you noticed that she hits harder when they scream?" I mentioned.

Charlie paused to give me a disgusted look. "That is so evil. Why did we get ourselves into this?"

" _We_?! I have a distinct memory of me saying that _we_ should _not_ do this!"

We were reminded of the situation when Campe's whip collided with the table above us. It tumbled down and collapsed onto us.

 _You're going to die_

"Are sirens related to Poseidon?" Charlie asked quickly as we crawled from the rubble.

"What? Charlie we are about to get killed by _the_ Campe, guard of Tartarus and torturer of the hundred handed ones. I don't think this is really the right time for a history lesson!"

"Just answer the question!" he insisted

"Yes! They're grandchildren of Poseidon."

He made a face. "You're cousins? Nevermind, sing!"

"What are you talking about?"

We jumped into one of the stampeding giants path and had to roll across the arena in order to not get stepped on.

"You're cousins with the sirens! So sing like a siren and make her leave us the flipping-fudge alone!"

"That's not how it works!" I argued. The whip came down again, hitting the back of my calf and upper part of Charlie's arm.

"How do you know? Come on, Jase! Karaoke in Tartarus! Just try, we're probably going to die anyway!"

He had a point. If I was going to die, I might as well take after my dad and do it in embarrassment. So I crawled out from under one of the tables and stood out in front of Campe.

I began to sing. I couldn't tell what words came from my mouth, if any at all. I got caught up in the sound. At first, Campe was nearly thrown to the ground. It was working. Then, she fought against me and began to step away. But she was struggling. It was actually working. I sang with more force, taking a step towards the monster and balling my fists. Campe dropped her whip and slowly walked towards me as if she was a zombie in the old horror films. I should have raised my dagger but I was too submersed in the power of my song. Charlie jumped in front of me at the last second and sliced Campe in half with his Drakon bone sword. I stopped singing once the two parts of her body fell to the ground. I dropped to my knees, gasping for breath. Charlie knelt beside me as Campe dragged herself towards us. He stood momentarily to smash her face in with his foot before he helped me up.

"You ok?"


	42. Field Trip outside the Argo

Casey didn't get much sleep that night. She was tossing and turning into the early hours of the morning and when she finally got to sleep, the breakfast bell rang. She groaned and groggily sat up. For a short second of bliss, she forgot what had happened. That was her favorite part of the day. That moment when she first woke up and was too sleepy to remember where her brother was. There was a knock on her door.

"Casey, you up? It's almost time to go," Jon's voice dragged her into consciousness.

"I'm up. Be there in five minutes." She got dressed and lazily dragged her hand through my hair before pulling on her combat boots, grabbing her sword, and heading for the door. She stopped with her hand on the doorknob and glanced back at the wall next to the bed. Jonathan said it was too boring and put a few pictures up on the first day on the Argo, back when all of this began. She snatched one of Jase and her off the wall and stuffed it in her flannel shirt pocket.

It had been three weeks to the day. Three weeks since her brother jumped into Hell, since he left everybody else up here on their own. Probably three weeks since he'd died.

Nico was at the bow with a pained expression. Casey marched up to him and stopped a foot or so away. He glanced up but didn't say anything.

"Is he dead?" She asked.

Nico frowned. "Cas,"

Casey felt a pang in her chest. "Don't call me Cas." Only Jase could call her Cas and get away with it. Nico knew it too He flinched slightly before speaking again.

"Casey, you know I don't know. There's a lot of souls entering the underworld, I haven't seen his but we don't know how death works _there_ ," he said glumly.

Casey huffed and stood next to him with her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest. "Do you think he's alive?" she asked.

Nico sighed in annoyance. "I _just_ told you-,"

"No. I'm not asking if the son of Hades knows anything about Jase's potential death. I'm asking my godfather, survivor of Tartarus, if he thinks my brother is alive."

Nico swallowed but didn't speak. It was all the answer Casey needed. She moved to walk away. Nico gently caught her hand.

"Casey, I wasn't there for very long. And I'm going to be honest with you, there's a reason the mortals call it Hell. But Jase is the strongest kid I've met since Percy was your age. He's strong, smart, and highly motivated. He would strangle the fates barehanded before leaving you in harm's way," he told her.

Casey couldn't help but feel doubtful. If his ultimate goal was to keep her from harm's way, why did he jump in the first place?

"Thanks, Nico." And she meant it.

"Casey, you good to go?" Annabeth asked, cautiously approaching her daughter. Casey nodded and gave a smile-purely for her mom's benefit. Annabeth had Oscar strapped to her chest in a greek-style wrap. He seemed to be asleep for the time being. Casey doubted that would last long.

"Yeah mom, I'm good. Is Adora coming?"

She nodded and looked back towards the door to the cabins. "Yes, she's inside getting ready with your dad."

When they finally left, only Leo stayed behind on the ship. Piper had tried to convince him to come, but he wouldn't even leave the control room. So they went without him, promising to come back before sundown.

"Where are we?" Casey asked.

"Cape Spear, Canada," Nico told her.

It wasn't snowy, which was a bit surprising. Casey had never been to Canada before, but she'd always just assumed it was snowy.

The group hiked to a nearby gas station. It must have looked strange to have all fourteen on them march into the small gas station on the edge of town, but the clerk didn't say anything. He watched them all with a smile that made Percy keep a hand on his dagger. Casey grabbed a few energy bars and dropped them onto the counter, then leaned against it as she waited for everybody else to grab their things. Jase used to make fun of her for liking the energy bars. She wished he was there to tease her now.

"You parents really can get through anything, huh?" the clerk suddenly asked.

Casey whipped around and took a step back. "Excuse me?"

Max was immediately at her side. He may be a bit sensitive, but he was still one Hades of a fighter. He was the perfect mixture of his parents, which made him a great friend _and_ a great fighter.

"No need for the back up, it's just an observation. Call the rest of the cousins over, I've got a proposal."

They didn't call the others over. Instead, Casey raised her hand so he could see her dagger. "What did you say about my parents?"

The clerk sighed dramatically and flailed his arms over the countertop. "I mean, leaders of the Titan war, travelers of the sea of monsters, killers of Kronus, survivors of Tar-,"

Casey cut him off with a dagger to the throat. This got Percy's attention, and the rest of our group surrounded the counter to see what was going on.

"Who are you?" Casey asked.

"Come on, little cousin. Don't you recognize me?"

"Apollo," Percy growled.

Apollo looked surprised at the irritation in his voice. "Last I knew, we left off on good terms. Don't worry, I'm just here to invite you all to a godly birthday party! Where's the little swordsman teacher? I wanted him to help me review my party tricks," Apollo strained his head to look through the group. Since Jase was 13, he started teaching swordsmanship at Camp. he got his skill from his dad, but perfected it much earlier.

"Don't talk about him," Piper warned.

Apollo took a step back, metaphorically. "Y'all don't seem to happy about whatever it is the scary Jackson kid is threatening me with."

Casey assumed she was the scary Jackson kid. She glanced back at her parents, who looked at her in worry. They'd been even more overprotective than usual since _it_ happened.

"Do you know where Jase is?" Max finally asked him.

Apollo eyes darted from Max to the dagger Casey still held to his neck, and seemed to finally put it together.

"Is he dead?"

"Stop talking. No, he isn't dead," Annabeth said cooly.

Apollo glanced to Annabeth and Percy. Annabeth leaned on her husband, keeping the weight off an old painful memory. Apollo took this as a clue.

"He's not-,"

"He is." Piper interrupted.

Apollo shrunk down a bit and turned into a scrawny teenager. _Lester's_ face was pale, there were slight bags under his eyes. He was covered in freckles and even had a bit of ache. This was his most human form. "When?" he asked, much more solemnly.

"Three weeks ago. He lead the expedition to save the Seven, but things went wrong."

"Nyx," Apollo guessed.

Casey let the dagger drop.

Jason stepped forward and raised his own weapon angrily. "How did you know that?"


	43. How to piss off a god

The god didn't answer. His face clouded with anger and he clenched his fists. He stormed past the counter and slammed the gas station door open. The demigods followed.

"Zeus! You big fat bloody liar!" he screamed to the sky. Hazel's eyes widened and she grabbed Apollo by the arm and dragged him back inside. He was still in trouble with Zeus for the whole _Octavian went bloody insane and started a war_ incident.

"What are you doing?" Hazel hissed. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

Hermes didn't look like he cared. He glared at the ceiling before motioning with his arms for everybody to huddle up.

"Zeus mentioned that Nyx had come to him, threatened him with the Seven. Zeus did nothing. He said he'd talked to the fates themselves and they told him it would all turn out well," Apollo admitted.

" _Well_? My godson is in Tartarus with nobody but Charlie Valdez and a nearly empty backpack! That is not _well_!" Nico was outraged.

Annabeth marched right up and stuck her finger in the god's face. Apollo let her. But he spoke before she could scream at him as well.

"I know, it's not well. Zeus may have known, he may not have. The fates have a very different version of _well_ than we do."

"Zeus knew?" Jason asked in a dangerously low voice. Apollo nodded. Jason and Percy exchanged a look.

"Apollo, take me to Olympus," Percy ordered.

"That's a bad idea," Apollo advised.

"Tell me that again when your child jumps into Hell."

Apollo nodded in respect and looked at Annabeth. He wasn't going to take Percy anywhere without Annabeth's permission.

"Go ahead. I'll stay here with the kids," she approved. Percy gave her a sad smile. He gave her a lingering kiss, then placed a kiss atop Oscar and Adora's heads. He gave Casey a hug and even though she was angry, she returned it. If something happened to him, Percy had to know he left on good terms. His family wasn't too worried about him. They didn't doubt that he could protect himself against Zeus. And Zeus knew better than to start a war by killing or injuring _the_ Percy Jackson. Especially when one of his kids was in danger.

Apollo took Percy's arm and gave the group a warning. They closed our eyes and when they opened them, Percy and Apollo were gone.

The others lingered in the gas station for a few more minutes before deciding that this was going to take awhile. Apollo would know where to find them. They grabbed their supplies, slapped a stack of bills on the counter, and headed back towards the ship.

"Where's Percy?" Leo asked glumly when the group got back to the Argo. By the puddle on the floor, Annabeth assumed he'd been talking to Calypso. He'd Iris Messaging her every day.

"On Olympus, yelling at Zeus."

Leo nodded, not bothering to ask why.

(Meanwhile, with Percy…)

Percy Jackson's hands were trembling. After all they'd been through. After all _he'd_ been through. He was ready to storm up to Olympus and tear them down himself, bare handed. He was willing to kill anything that stood in his path. Apollo had left once he'd reached the doors to Olympus, knowing it would about to become heated in the throne room.

Zeus appeared before him. Percy did not bow. He stood and glared at the god, then showed off his sword.

"Perseus-,"

"My _child_. It took my _child_ ," Percy growled. A dangerous glare of warning gleamed in his eyes.

"It was necessary-,"

"Necessary? Do you know _where_ _he is_?!"

Perseus Jackson wanted to drop to his knees and scream. He wanted to run the king of the gods through with Riptide. Instead, he concentrated on not letting his tears escape in front of Zeus.

"Annabeth and I, we saved your silly immortal lives more than we've lived our own. We gave up everything. After all we've been through, started a family, gotten to the point where we don't wake with nightmares each and _every_ night, we were finally happy! But my child? My son! He was the first of any happiness Annabeth and I experienced since you gods ruined our lives. He's the reason we're sane. He's already saved your worthless ass more times than you have saved yourself. Do you know where he is because of you?"

The tears came anyway, but Percy knew the ruler of the skies was still threatened by him. They both knew Percy was capable of killing him right then and there if Zeus made one wrong move.

"No, Perseus."

Percy closed his eyes, haunted with images of a place he never thought he'd have to think of again. "My son is in _Tartarus_."

Zeus took a step back. "It cannot be true," he protested.

"I don't care what you think, it _is_ true. I don't know what has happened to him, or what is happening. Now tell me, is he alive?"

Zeus didn't answer. "

IS MY SON ALIVE?" Percy raised his sword and pointed it towards the god.

"I do not know," Zeus answered.

Percy trembled with anger and grief. "He's sixteen years old. He's a child, Zeus. You've had children, but they are nothing but pawns to you. Jason Jackson is not one of your pawns. He is my son. And if I do not get him back, you will regret every decision you've ever made. If there's any chance that he's alive, you will help me get him back. If we have a chance to save him, to help him, and you don't take it, I will destroy you," Percy threatened. His voice was cracking, tears swam down his cheeks.

Zeus sighed. "I assure you-,"

"I swear it on the River Styx. If my son dies because you don't help him, I will kill you and make sure you can never come back."

Zeus's face went dark. "You should not threaten a god, Perseus."

Percy's expression was much more than grief, almost causing the god to take back his words. "You should not have threatened my family, Zeus."

Once he left, Percy found Apollo outside the throne room. "Bring me back to my family, please."

Hermes nodded solemnly and took his arm. He didn't teleport quite yet.

"Did you find anything?" he asked.

Percy sighed. "I don't know. The news isn't great, but we have no way to know for sure what happened."

Apollo nodded and they evaporated in a bright light.

When Percy opened his eyes, he was standing on the bow of the argo.

Casey found him first. "Dad!" She ran towards him and Percy wrapped her in a hug. He would never take advantage of his family. They were too important. He still had three kids that needed him.

"It's ok honey, are you ok?" he soothed. His previous demeanor was gone in an instant. Above him, Zeus wondered how a child's love could really change a man so much. He wondered how _anything_ could change a murderous attitude like that.

"Are you? You've been gone for two days!"

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize how drastically different the time would be on Olympus," Percy apologized. Casey looked up at him with big sad eyes, wishing for the news Percy didn't have.

"I don't know, honey. Zeus doesn't know either, but if he gets any news he'll tell us," he offered.

"How do you know he'll tell us anything?" Casey spat towards the sky.

"Trust me, he will."


	44. Misery

**TARTARUS**

Charlie was very excited. He was skipping as if he were a child and didn't even complain when we stopped for a lava break.

"You can sing! Not just sing, but you can like, super-sing! This is so cool!"

I groaned. "If you don't shut up about it then I'll sing you to sleep and carry you," I threatened.

"That doesn't sound bad," Charlie admitted. I scoffed but felt myself smiling. We'd been walking for a few weeks maybe, it was hard to tell for sure. We'd fought some monsters, earned ourselves a few new scars, and completely run out of supplies.

For seemingly no reason, the smile left Charlie's face. He stopped skipping and took my hand, slowing his pace. It was like the flick of a switch, his attitude changed completely. Before I could ask him what was wrong, the same thing happened to me. Truth be told, I'd been anticipating something like this happening. It had been way too long since we'd fought a major monster. The voices in my head didn't even feel the need to narrate a painful death for us yet, that's how depressing the mood turned.

Then it appeared. There was a small nook in the cliff wall next to us, and inside was a hideous looking being that slightly resembled a very old lady (like the mean ones that slams her doors on kids on Halloween) that had obviously done some strange mixtures of drugs in her youth. I knew who it was before she even spoke. The cloud of emotions in the small save read only as grief. The shield in her hands displaying Medusa also gave it away.

"Achlys?" I greeted softly. I hadn't heard any stories of her, so I decided to approach the situation positively. She had no reason to kill us, so maybe she wouldn't actually attack. Mom and Dad taught us a lot about the mythological world, but they always seemed to skim over Achlys.

"Does it matter?" she said glumly, confirming her identity. "Nothing matters, we're stuck here either way."

Charlie looked and me and shrugged. He smiled in a confusing way, but it made me feel a bit better. "Well we've got plans that _don't_ involve being stuck here forever, so if you could get out of our way that'd be great," Charlie cheerfully took a step forward.

The goddess grunted and turned around, mixing things around in a broken bowl. Kind of a useless activity if you ask me, but I guess things do get pretty boring down here. I figured that maybe being honest could earn us some brownie points with the goddess.

"I'm Jase, Jase Jackson. This is Charlie Valdez. We've been here for months. We're trying to get out. Have you heard anything about the crack that monsters are escaping from?"

"Jackson!?" She screamed in outrage.

Ok, maybe I was wrong.

Her face contorted in anger and she squinted at me. "You're going to stay here for the rest of time, just as I will. I will show you how miserable your life will be! You should never have fought me as you did!" Achlys groaned, reaching her hand forward.

She never mentioned Charlie, so I guessed her problem was with me. Thanks, Dad. "Stay positive, Charlie. Seriously, that's the only way we're getting out of this," I warned. I took his hand in mine and pulled him behind me.

"Oh, you're not getting out of this," Achlys cackled. "Your father may have been able to subdue me but I have the power this time, I know what makes you miserable."

Dad never told me he'd fought Achlys. He'd fought a lot of monsters over time, so you might think that he just forgot. But Dad never forgot. Why wouldn't he tell me? My parents always said it was important for us to learn as much as we could because we never knew what would happen. So what reason could they have to keep this from us?

"How did you dad defeat her?" Charlie whispered.

I was tempted to shrug. But something told me that I already knew. I felt an ancient rage boiling within me, urging to be released and insisting to kill. I felt every drop of the goddess's blood swirling through her veins. I felt the beating of her heart in my hands. All I needed to do was clench my fist to stop the flow. I knew why my parents never told us about Achlys. There are times when power is too great to be shared, when the threat is too great. Just like when we'd fought Medusa. Dad didn't tell us, because he didn't want us to grow with the possibility of this power.

"Something dangerous," I answered. I made a mental note to never bring this up with my parents if we ever got out.

"You're not going to do that though, right?"

I could tell he knew what I was talking about, but I couldn't tell if Charlie was asking or warning me.

"No, I'm not," I promised. But because that wasn't an option, there weren't really many when it came to fighting this ancient goddess. I wasn't going to stoop low enough as to murder somebody like that.

Achlys took loud, almost clumsy, steps towards us with her arms limp and her head unnaturally tilted. I lifted my dagger and swung when she got close, but my blade went right through her.

 _Embrace the power within you_

I was distracted. The Arai were urging me to lose the dagger and use my powers. But I couldn't let them win. If they had control of me, my powers, they wouldn't stop with Achlys. They'd kill Charlie next, then everything else in their path. They wanted to survive. Unfortunately for them, so did I. But I wanted Charlie to survive more. So I didn't use my powers. I didn't care what they said. I was not going to use those powers unless I knew that Charlie wouldn't be in danger.

The dagger was useless, but I continued anyway. I swung wildly, providing Achlys an opportunity to strike. Her hand sprung forward surprisingly fast, considering how slow she'd been before.

"You are miserable," she said as she wrapped her sharp fingers around my throat and pulled me closer to her. She pressed her nose to my cheek and took a deep, uncomfortable breath. "I love it."

It was the only positive thing I'd heard her say, but it did nothing to reassure me. I gagged and swiped desperately but nothing seemed to touch her.

 _Use your powers_

 _It's bursting within you, don't try to hide it_

 _We know how tempted you are_

I wanted to. I wanted so badly to wipe that smug look of the goddess's face. I felt my fingers stiffening into a tight ball in my hand. The power surged through me, screaming to be released. And I was just about to let it.

 _You'll die if you don't_

"Haven't you ever taken home-ec? That's not how you prepare a proper meal!" Charlie yelled. His voice subdued my desire kill the goddess. I felt gross, disgusting. The almost longing feeling to snuff out somebody's life like that terrified me. I was a teenager, a big brother, a son. I wasn't a monster. But the urge still remained, hidden deep in the back of my mind. Part of me stil wanted to squeeze the life out of her. The thought faded as I realised how quickly I was running out of air. I had forgotten that she was choking. Kind of a strange thing to forget, but my mind was a busy place.

"He's still raw! Are you _trying_ to get a disease?!" Charlie shouted to get her attention. She turned to him, tossing me to the side like a discarded piece of fruit at the supermarket.

I began to cough violently once she let me go. I clutched my throat as if it would help resupply my oxygen supply. My throat felt like somebody had taken a pair of shears down the center. An explosion of pressure and pain sent my head spiraling. I'd never had a headache this bad.

Charlie backed up warily, not noticing the approaching cliff. I tried to yell out but found myself unable to speak.

 _That would be your larynx damage_

"To cook your food, you need fire. But don't worry, I'll provide that! Just for you!" Charlie yelped before thrusting his hands forward. Two columns of angry fire spit towards the goddess.

"Also, just don't eat people! That's so morally wrong!" he added.

Achlys moaned in pain and lifted her hands in front of her. "I'm the goddess of misery, I don't have morals!" she protested.

Charlie took a short moment to shrug, admitting that she had a good point. "Ok, that's fair. But next time, take a moment to think about the consequences before you try kill Jason Jackson," he said instead.

I tried to crawl forward but gave up and rolled onto my back. My vision was clouded with white. I couldn't tell if what I was hearing was real or just a figment of my imagination.

"There are no consequences. He's weak. His parents won't save him now," Achlys gaggled.

Charlie's expression darkened. He growled. "But I will."

The fire became so hot that I could feel it from ten feet away. Just before I passed out, I saw the fire turn bright blue, almost white.

Then, an explosion.

I died. I was dead. That much was obvious. I knew a lot of dead people. Most of them were Norse, but none of them explained death as I was experiencing it. But I didn't leave Tartarus. My soul never went to the Underworld to be judged. I'd been in water, but not the kind of water I was used to. It was cold, so cold. I wondered if that was what Charlie felt like when Khione cursed him. There had been other souls swirling around.

" _Murderer,_ " they hissed. " _You abandon them all_ ,"

I noted their word choice. Abandon, not abandon _ed_. As if I was still leaving people behind to suffer. I felt myself drifting forward, and I joined the souls of the river. I didn't know what river it was, but I was a part of it.

Time was no longer in existence. Years seemingly went by in an instant. I felt myself aging, but I also felt myself growing younger at the same time. There are no words to properly explain what was happening to me. But nothing ever happened to the river. Just eternity, feeling more and more guilt every second I was there. I was guilty. I screamed my pain, admitting to everything I had done wrong. I apologized, but there was nobody there to listen.

Then I felt myself being suddenly yanked from the river. The same hand that pulled me out of the River of Lamentation all those months souls screamed at me, yelling to remind me of my sins, of all I had failed.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the sound of Charlie's labored breathing. The second thing I noticed was a sharp pain in my chest. I felt the blood pump faster through my veins, my heart began to beat on its own. Which meant that it hadn't been beating before.

Charlie was doing CPR, which explained the pain in my ribcage. Before I could assess the situation any further, I lurched forward and vomited. I couldn't stop the empty gagging that followed. There was nothing in my body to puke up. Charlie grabbed me by the arms-not very gently- and pulled me into an upright sitting position. He had been crying. My brain was still fuzzy. I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I was confused, disoriented.

"I thought you were gone! You were dead! _You were dead_!" Charlie cried. He hugged me so desperately that I couldn't help but feel guilty. More guilt. Charlie was sobbing. Heavy, unfiltered, sobbing.

I gently cupped the back of his head in my hand and held him close. I felt lightheaded, part of me felt like I was dreaming. I had been in that river for so long, but such a short amount of time had passed.

"How long was I out?" I croaked. My throat burned.

Charlie sniffed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "Twenty seven minutes. I counted. I did chest compressions thirty times, then two rescue breaths, then thirty chest compressions and two rescue breaths, then thirty chest compressions and two rescue breaths-" he cut himself off with a short cry. I rose to my knees and hugged him again, ignoring the flaring pain in my wounded ribcage. Charlie wrapped his arms under my armpits and kind of fell forward onto my chest. I ignored the flaring pain of my broken ribs.

"Don't you ever do that again. I don't care if you use your powers to choke her to death with her own saliva or whatever, just as long as you never ever do that again," he muttered.

"Do what, die?" I lightheartedly joked.

Charlie didn't playfully punch me like he usually did. He hugged me tighter. "I'm serious. Kill the bitch before you let her kill you. Don't leave me alone, Jase. Especially not here. I can't do it without you," he said seriously.

I stopped the joking attitude immediately. I separated from him just enough to look him in the eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Charlie. I promise, I will do whatever it takes to not ever leave you alone here. I won't let you stay here alone, and I will do whatever the fuck it takes to get you out of here. I swear it on the river Styx," I promised. The long sentence hurt to say. I felt like somebody had just torn out my vocal cords and a drunk monkey had attempted to stuff them back in.

Charlie smiled, then tilted his head. "What does it mean to promise on the river Styx?"

I smiled and pressed my lips to his forehead. "An oath to keep till the final breath."


	45. Grover has a headache (Outside POV)

The god didn't answer. His face clouded with anger and he clenched his fists. He stormed past the counter and slammed the gas station door open. The demigods followed.

"Zeus! You big fat bloody liar!" he screamed to the sky. Hazel's eyes widened and she grabbed Apollo by the arm and dragged him back inside. He was still in trouble with Zeus for the whole _Octavian went bloody insane and started a war_ incident.

"What are you doing?" Hazel hissed. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

Hermes didn't look like he cared. He glared at the ceiling before motioning with his arms for everybody to huddle up.

"Zeus mentioned that Nyx had come to him, threatened him with the Seven. Zeus did nothing. He said he'd talked to the fates themselves and they told him it would all turn out well," Apollo admitted.

" _Well_? My godson is in Tartarus with nobody but Charlie Valdez and a nearly empty backpack! That is not _well_!" Nico was outraged.

Annabeth marched right up and stuck her finger in the god's face. Apollo let her. But he spoke before she could scream at him as well.

"I know, it's not well. Zeus may have known, he may not have. The fates have a very different version of _well_ than we do."

"Zeus knew?" Jason asked in a dangerously low voice. Apollo nodded. Jason and Percy exchanged a look.

"Apollo, take me to Olympus," Percy ordered.

"That's a bad idea," Apollo advised.

"Tell me that again when your child jumps into Hell."

Apollo nodded in respect and looked at Annabeth. He wasn't going to take Percy anywhere without Annabeth's permission.

"Go ahead. I'll stay here with the kids," she approved. Percy gave her a sad smile. He gave her a lingering kiss, then placed a kiss atop Oscar and Adora's heads. He gave Casey a hug and even though she was angry, she returned it. If something happened to him, Percy had to know he left on good terms. His family wasn't too worried about him. They didn't doubt that he could protect himself against Zeus. And Zeus knew better than to start a war by killing or injuring _the_ Percy Jackson. Especially when one of his kids was in danger.

Apollo took Percy's arm and gave the group a warning. They closed our eyes and when they opened them, Percy and Apollo were gone.

The others lingered in the gas station for a few more minutes before deciding that this was going to take awhile. Apollo would know where to find them. They grabbed their supplies, slapped a stack of bills on the counter, and headed back towards the ship.

"Where's Percy?" Leo asked glumly when the group got back to the Argo. By the puddle on the floor, Annabeth assumed he'd been talking to Calypso. He'd Iris Messaging her every day.

"On Olympus, yelling at Zeus."

Leo nodded, not bothering to ask why.

(Meanwhile, with Percy…)

Percy Jackson's hands were trembling. After all they'd been through. After all _he'd_ been through. He was ready to storm up to Olympus and tear them down himself, bare handed. He was willing to kill anything that stood in his path. Apollo had left once he'd reached the doors to Olympus, knowing it would about to become heated in the throne room.

Zeus appeared before him. Percy did not bow. He stood and glared at the god, then showed off his sword.

"Perseus-,"

"My _child_. It took my _child_ ," Percy growled. A dangerous glare of warning gleamed in his eyes.

"It was necessary-,"

"Necessary? Do you know _where_ _he is_?!"

Perseus Jackson wanted to drop to his knees and scream. He wanted to run the king of the gods through with Riptide. Instead, he concentrated on not letting his tears escape in front of Zeus.

"Annabeth and I, we saved your silly immortal lives more than we've lived our own. We gave up everything. After all we've been through, started a family, gotten to the point where we don't wake with nightmares each and _every_ night, we were finally happy! But my child? My son! He was the first of any happiness Annabeth and I experienced since you gods ruined our lives. He's the reason we're sane. He's already saved your worthless ass more times than you have saved yourself. Do you know where he is because of you?"

The tears came anyway, but Percy knew the ruler of the skies was still threatened by him. They both knew Percy was capable of killing him right then and there if Zeus made one wrong move.

"No, Perseus."

Percy closed his eyes, haunted with images of a place he never thought he'd have to think of again. "My son is in _Tartarus_."

Zeus took a step back. "It cannot be true," he protested.

"I don't care what you think, it _is_ true. I don't know what has happened to him, or what is happening. Now tell me, is he alive?"

Zeus didn't answer. "

IS MY SON ALIVE?" Percy raised his sword and pointed it towards the god.

"I do not know," Zeus answered.

Percy trembled with anger and grief. "He's sixteen years old. He's a child, Zeus. You've had children, but they are nothing but pawns to you. Jason Jackson is not one of your pawns. He is my son. And if I do not get him back, you will regret every decision you've ever made. If there's any chance that he's alive, you will help me get him back. If we have a chance to save him, to help him, and you don't take it, I will destroy you," Percy threatened. His voice was cracking, tears swam down his cheeks.

Zeus sighed. "I assure you-,"

"I swear it on the River Styx. If my son dies because you don't help him, I will kill you and make sure you can never come back."

Zeus's face went dark. "You should not threaten a god, Perseus."

Percy's expression was much more than grief, almost causing the god to take back his words. "You should not have threatened my family, Zeus."

Once he left, Percy found Apollo outside the throne room. "Bring me back to my family, please."

Hermes nodded solemnly and took his arm. He didn't teleport quite yet.

"Did you find anything?" he asked.

Percy sighed. "I don't know. The news isn't great, but we have no way to know for sure what happened."

Apollo nodded and they evaporated in a bright light.

When Percy opened his eyes, he was standing on the bow of the argo.

Casey found him first. "Dad!" She ran towards him and Percy wrapped her in a hug. He would never take advantage of his family. They were too important. He still had three kids that needed him.

"It's ok honey, are you ok?" he soothed. His previous demeanor was gone in an instant. Above him, Zeus wondered how a child's love could really change a man so much. He wondered how _anything_ could change a murderous attitude like that.

"Are you? You've been gone for two days!"

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize how drastically different the time would be on Olympus," Percy apologized. Casey looked up at him with big sad eyes, wishing for the news Percy didn't have.

"I don't know, honey. Zeus doesn't know either, but if he gets any news he'll tell us," he offered.

"How do you know he'll tell us anything?" Casey spat towards the sky.

"Trust me, he will."


	46. Grover (Outside POV)

At Camp, there was no word from the Prophecy of Seven, or their children. But Grover knew something was wrong. After Annabeth and Percy fell into Tartarus, Grover's empathy link with Percy had been unreliable. But as Percy and Annabeth were falling, Grover had the feeling of dread, every feeling Percy felt. And it was horrible.

But it was nothing compared to when Jase fell. Grover had been walking across a meadow at Camp when the feeling of loss struck him. He dropped the ground, clutching his head. The guilt was overwhelming and the fear paralyzed him completely. Juniper found him a few minutes later and brought him to the infirmary. The doctors there could do nothing. When asked what was wrong, everybody in the room froze when Grover responded with,

"Percy! Something's wrong with Percy!"

Chiron was called. The head of every cabin was summoned to the infirmary where Grover was sitting across the bed with a steady stream of tears. When asked to elaborate, Grover said, "I don't know! But it's worse than Tartarus,"

He hadn't meant to worry anybody, but he didn't have enough control over his emotions to contain himself.

"What could be worse than falling into Tartarus?"

As the moment passed, dread filled Grover from head to hoof. Annabeth. What if something had happened to Annabeth? Percy would be devastated. Grover felt his own fear and jumped from the bed to run to the nearby fountain.

"We need to contact Percy," he insisted. Nobody disagreed. A rainbow was made, and Percy was called. It was a full 45 seconds before Grover's best friend finally came into view.

"Percy!" Grover bleated in relief. Percy didn't look up. He didn't even react. He was sitting in a cabin in the Argo, his hands completely still in his lap.

"Percy, what happened?" Katie Gardner asked slowly.

"Is Annabeth ok?" somebody else added. Percy closed his eyes, the first sign of movement. Grover felt his stomach churning in worry. He wasn't sure if it was his or Percy's.

"He's gone," Percy's voice was low and hoarse as if he'd been screaming or crying. "My boy is gone."

Murmuring went through the cloud in speculation of what had happened. The door opened and Annabeth sat down next to Percy. Jason sat on the other side of him and set a hand on his shoulder, sending a warning look towards the iris message. Terror filled Percy's eyes for just a moment, only long enough for Grover to see.

"Where's Jase?" He heard the words coming from his mouth before he could censor himself. Annabeth shook her head, unable to say it. Grover could hear Casey crying from somewhere in the Argo.

"Tartarus," Jason Grace answered. The group, as if pushed by an invisible force, took a collective step back. Kaitie gasped and grabbed Travis's arm instinctively and her hand flew to her mouth.

Chiron remained perfectly still, much like Percy. "We will alert the Camps," he said quietly. Percy nodded and buried his head in Annabeth's lap. Jason looked sadly at the pair before swiping his hand through the Iris message.

Nobody spoke. The news was the worst they'd gotten in since Percy and Annabeth's plunge. Chiron left the room to gives news to the entire camp of kids waiting outside.

The first one to cry was a young Ares boy, about nine years old. He arrived at Camp when he was six, all alone and scared. Jase had been the one to find him and help him through the border. There was no shame in crying in a time like this, especially for a child who lost somebody they cared for. But the older demigods had been through this before, the feeling that overcame them was familiar. When the news of Percy and Annabeth's fall came to Camp, the entire demigod population was devastated. But now it was their son, one whom most of these demigods had grown up with or seen grow up.

Grover was high on Ambrosia and still had a few stray tears slipping down his face. Jason and Piper had called back a few minutes later and told them they were heading back to camp, but they weren't in a particular rush so it might be awhile. They also explained what had happened.

"He jumped in? For some random kid?" Conner had a hard time understanding. Piper sighed and pressed her fingertips to her temples.

"Charlie wasn't- isn't just some random kid. He's Leo's son, and Jase's friend. You know his fatal flaw; he wasn't going to let a friend of his fall into Tartarus alone, especially if his friend has no training and didn't know the Greek world had even existed," she explained.

"So not only is Jase in Tartarus, he has to babysit while he's there?" Conner closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, that was crossing a line."

Conner had trained Jase since he was about two-years-old. Not in sword fighting or lava climbing walls or monsterology. Conner had taught Jase how to play tag. He'd taught Jase how to prank, the basics of organizing a school locker, the importance of showing your family the love you have for them. He taught Jason the highlights of being a kid. And now that kid who Conner was determined to give a normal life had jumped into the deepest pits of hell. He was never going to be a kid again.

Piper and Jason were obviously upset by Conner's outburst.

"Jase is strong, he'll be ok. He didn't mean to do anything bad, he didn't mean to hurt anyone by leaving, he's a good kid, a good son. But if no one will take his side after he took the fall, who will believe in him enough to come back? Have faith in Jase, Conner. He's strong. He'll do anything he can to get back." **(AU: If you understood that reference, we are now friends.)**

Conner only nodded. He didn't have any words left. His brother lead him away, knowing the conversation might as well be over. Piper ended the Iris message.

"Pipes, we have got to get him back," Jason said.

"I know, but there's nothing we can do. There are no doors of death that we can meet them at. No matter how much research we do, we can't help. Even if we do find a way to escape Tartarus, there's no way to tell Jase. We just have to trust him." Piper took her husband's hand and he gently placed his hands on her waist.

"What if it was Katrina or Jonathan?" he said.

Piper stiffened in his grip. She felt herself being thankful that Kat and Jon were ok, then felt guilty. She had no right to be grateful that her children were ok if it meant somebody else's child and somebody else's family had to go through the pain.

"Jase could have been the first to leave. He was in the front of the line. But he made sure he got everybody else out first. He let Kat and Jon pass, when he could have easily gone first. If he hadn't made them go first, it might have been them," Jason said. Piper held him tightly in her embrace, urging him not to think about it.

"We both know Jase is capable. Percy and Annabeth raised him well. He's the oldest, he's spent his whole life taking care of others. Let's just hope he remembers to take care of himself to."

AU: SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED, I'M AT EMERALD CITY COMICON IN SEATTLE AND I'VE BEEN SUPER BUSY :) :D :)


	47. Suggestions

Hey everybody! I know this isn't an update, but welcome to my first author's note! I'm getting a lot of suggestions and I'd like to know if I'm doing ok. Here's a list of the suggestions I've gotten so far:

\- add more ships of other characters besides Jase and Charlie

\- Give Casey a love life (working on it, and do you guys want her to be a hunter?)

\- Create more meaningful conversations between the Jackson's

\- Ideas for a sequel?

\- Getting a message to camp

\- put the POVs on top of each chapter

Is there anything else you would like to me add? Also, I'm not able to reply to any reviews, but I swear I read every one! Thank you all for reading :) I'll be updating again on Friday, and every Friday... See you then!


	48. Return to Camp (sorry for short chapter)

The god didn't answer. His face clouded with anger and he clenched his fists. He stormed past the counter and slammed the gas station door open. The demigods followed.

"Zeus! You big fat bloody liar!" he screamed to the sky. Hazel's eyes widened and she grabbed Apollo by the arm and dragged him back inside. He was still in trouble with Zeus for the whole _Octavian went bloody insane and started a war_ incident.

"What are you doing?" Hazel hissed. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

Hermes didn't look like he cared. He glared at the ceiling before motioning with his arms for everybody to huddle up.

"Zeus mentioned that Nyx had come to him, threatened him with the Seven. Zeus did nothing. He said he'd talked to the fates themselves and they told him it would all turn out well," Apollo admitted.

" _Well_? My godson is in Tartarus with nobody but Charlie Valdez and a nearly empty backpack! That is not _well_!" Nico was outraged.

Annabeth marched right up and stuck her finger in the god's face. Apollo let her. But he spoke before she could scream at him as well.

"I know, it's not well. Zeus may have known, he may not have. The fates have a very different version of _well_ than we do."

"Zeus knew?" Jason asked in a dangerously low voice. Apollo nodded. Jason and Percy exchanged a look.

"Apollo, take me to Olympus," Percy ordered.

"That's a bad idea," Apollo advised.

"Tell me that again when your child jumps into Hell."

Apollo nodded in respect and looked at Annabeth. He wasn't going to take Percy anywhere without Annabeth's permission.

"Go ahead. I'll stay here with the kids," she approved. Percy gave her a sad smile. He gave her a lingering kiss, then placed a kiss atop Oscar and Adora's heads. He gave Casey a hug and even though she was angry, she returned it. If something happened to him, Percy had to know he left on good terms. His family wasn't too worried about him. They didn't doubt that he could protect himself against Zeus. And Zeus knew better than to start a war by killing or injuring _the_ Percy Jackson. Especially when one of his kids was in danger.

Apollo took Percy's arm and gave the group a warning. They closed our eyes and when they opened them, Percy and Apollo were gone.

The others lingered in the gas station for a few more minutes before deciding that this was going to take awhile. Apollo would know where to find them. They grabbed their supplies, slapped a stack of bills on the counter, and headed back towards the ship.

"Where's Percy?" Leo asked glumly when the group got back to the Argo. By the puddle on the floor, Annabeth assumed he'd been talking to Calypso. He'd Iris Messaging her every day.

"On Olympus, yelling at Zeus."

Leo nodded, not bothering to ask why.

(Meanwhile, with Percy…)

Percy Jackson's hands were trembling. After all they'd been through. After all _he'd_ been through. He was ready to storm up to Olympus and tear them down himself, bare handed. He was willing to kill anything that stood in his path. Apollo had left once he'd reached the doors to Olympus, knowing it would about to become heated in the throne room.

Zeus appeared before him. Percy did not bow. He stood and glared at the god, then showed off his sword.

"Perseus-,"

"My _child_. It took my _child_ ," Percy growled. A dangerous glare of warning gleamed in his eyes.

"It was necessary-,"

"Necessary? Do you know _where_ _he is_?!"

Perseus Jackson wanted to drop to his knees and scream. He wanted to run the king of the gods through with Riptide. Instead, he concentrated on not letting his tears escape in front of Zeus.

"Annabeth and I, we saved your silly immortal lives more than we've lived our own. We gave up everything. After all we've been through, started a family, gotten to the point where we don't wake with nightmares each and _every_ night, we were finally happy! But my child? My son! He was the first of any happiness Annabeth and I experienced since you gods ruined our lives. He's the reason we're sane. He's already saved your worthless ass more times than you have saved yourself. Do you know where he is because of you?"

The tears came anyway, but Percy knew the ruler of the skies was still threatened by him. They both knew Percy was capable of killing him right then and there if Zeus made one wrong move.

"No, Perseus."

Percy closed his eyes, haunted with images of a place he never thought he'd have to think of again. "My son is in _Tartarus_."

Zeus took a step back. "It cannot be true," he protested.

"I don't care what you think, it _is_ true. I don't know what has happened to him, or what is happening. Now tell me, is he alive?"

Zeus didn't answer. "

IS MY SON ALIVE?" Percy raised his sword and pointed it towards the god.

"I do not know," Zeus answered.

Percy trembled with anger and grief. "He's sixteen years old. He's a child, Zeus. You've had children, but they are nothing but pawns to you. Jason Jackson is not one of your pawns. He is my son. And if I do not get him back, you will regret every decision you've ever made. If there's any chance that he's alive, you will help me get him back. If we have a chance to save him, to help him, and you don't take it, I will destroy you," Percy threatened. His voice was cracking, tears swam down his cheeks.

Zeus sighed. "I assure you-,"

"I swear it on the River Styx. If my son dies because you don't help him, I will kill you and make sure you can never come back."

Zeus's face went dark. "You should not threaten a god, Perseus."

Percy's expression was much more than grief, almost causing the god to take back his words. "You should not have threatened my family, Zeus."

Once he left, Percy found Apollo outside the throne room. "Bring me back to my family, please."

Hermes nodded solemnly and took his arm. He didn't teleport quite yet.

"Did you find anything?" he asked.

Percy sighed. "I don't know. The news isn't great, but we have no way to know for sure what happened."

Apollo nodded and they evaporated in a bright light.

When Percy opened his eyes, he was standing on the bow of the argo.

Casey found him first. "Dad!" She ran towards him and Percy wrapped her in a hug. He would never take advantage of his family. They were too important. He still had three kids that needed him.

"It's ok honey, are you ok?" he soothed. His previous demeanor was gone in an instant. Above him, Zeus wondered how a child's love could really change a man so much. He wondered how _anything_ could change a murderous attitude like that.

"Are you? You've been gone for two days!"

"I'm fine. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize how drastically different the time would be on Olympus," Percy apologized. Casey looked up at him with big sad eyes, wishing for the news Percy didn't have.

"I don't know, honey. Zeus doesn't know either, but if he gets any news he'll tell us," he offered.

"How do you know he'll tell us anything?" Casey spat towards the sky.

"Trust me, he will."


	49. Return to camp (sorry for short chap!)

Nobody cheered when the Argo made port in the lake in at Camp Half Blood. There was no celebration waiting. The campers stood on the grass, silent. Reyna and Calypso were waiting on the beach.

As the Jackson family exited the boat, Grover ran forward. Percy and Annabeth hugged their best friend. Nathan, Casey's best friend, didn't hug her. He knew she wouldn't want it. He ran to her side and stood in front of her with his head bowed.

"Casey, I'm sorry."

The grand daughter of Poseidon raised her eyes just enough to see Nathan, then fell into his unexpecting arms. He carefully guided her away. He knew she would want to be somewhere more private when she began to cry. Adora went to the infirmary with Katie Gardner, only because she didn't want to go back to the Poseidon cabin. Jase still had his extra bag of Ambrosia hidden under the mattresses in the infirmary, and Adora wanted a piece. It was Jase's special Jackson ambrosia because it was the one he gave to his little siblings, the one he said tasted like Grandma Sally's cookies. Adora didn't know that all ambrosia would taste like that. She wasn't physically hurt, but took a small piece of the godly food anyway. It didn't taste like Grandma Sally's cookies. It tasted like Jase's blueberry chocolate chip pancakes. Adora didn't even like Jase's blueberry chocolate chip pancakes that much.

Percy and Annabeth went to the big house with Grover. Oscar was in his mother's arms. Tyson was waiting in the living room and he immediately pulled the Jacksons into a barely-breathable hug.

"What happened?" Chiron asked once they entered. His attitude was much too serious to think about how happy he was to see Percy and Annabeth again.

Percy exchanged a look with his wife. Might as well start from the beginning. "When I got to Camp, I was setting up a training drill in the forest for Jase's class. Nyx used her powers to create divots in the camp's border so the cyclops's could get it just long enough to nab me and the others, then zap us somewhere else. It came up behind me and hit me over the head. When I came to, I was in a cave. Piper and Jason appeared soon after, then Hazel and Frank. Annabeth was the last to come. It was another week before Leo appeared. None of us had expected him, but he explained as best he could. That's when we found out he had a son back in California that didn't know about this world," Percy said. He glanced at Annabeth, and she took over.

"Then the kids came. They made it through the cyclops and were able to free us, but because Nyx had used so much power to keep us all from leaving, she couldn't control it anymore. When she was attacking, she created cracks in the ground that lead all the way to...there. Charlie fell in. Jase got loose, and jumped after him. That's all we know."

Chiron was thoughtful. He didn't voice his concerns, but he doubted that Charlie Valdez and Jason Jackson would have even survived the initial fall. He didn't know Charlie. He knew Leo, but that didn't aid his concerns.

Leo stayed on the beach with Calypso. He did not embrace her. Dropping to his knees, he apologized. He held her legs as a scolded child would.

"I'm sorry, Caly. I kept him out of this to keep him safe, and now I've lost him because of it," Leo tried to apologize but a sob broke through.

Calypso gracefully knelt down beside him and touched her forehead to his. "It's not your fault, Leo. We'll get him back."


	50. A dark time (Tartarus)

The longer we walked, the worse I got. The curse of the Arai turning up more and more to show me that it was more just bad dreams. I was plagued by voices of the Arai with every decision I made and every step I took. I decided that having the Arai in your head is kind of like walking a wild dog while wearing noise canceling headphones. The Arai pull and push me in every direction they please and it takes all my strength to keep them on the right path. They chase after every living thing they see as if they want to kill it, which I had no doubt they would do if they got the chance. The voices in my head could only compare to listening to heavy metal screaming into my ear at all times of the day, yelling depressing lyrics and whispering promises of death.

"I am really craving McDonalds right now. I think that should be our first stop when we get out," Charlie groaned. Hearing Charlie's voice was like somebody hitting pause on the music. The sound resulted in instant relief. Or, at least for a moment.

 _You're never getting out_

"Yeah, McDonalds sounds great."

 _You should just give up_

It was hard to ignore. No, not hard. Impossible. Charlie knew I was down (more than usual) and was trying to seem cheerful. I knew he wasn't actually in a good mood. It was hard to be in a good mood when you couldn't remember the feeling of grass beneath your feet. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw death. And I don't mean Thanatos. Charlie was in many of these forced visions, usually he was being killed. I knew he was alive, obviously. But when I rested my eyes or gods forbid went to sleep, I had another terror. When I woke up, I wasn't sure whether it was real or not. Every situation I dreamed of was a logical event, giving our current situation. So if I woke up and Charlie was off getting fire water or whatever and I couldn't see him, I sometimes believed that my dream was real. I couldn't tell if I was dreaming until I saw him.

"I think we should take a break," Charlie suggested. I grunted in response. If it wasn't obvious, I was in a terrible mood. I was in immense pain, I missed my family, and I was convinced that we were going to die. Charlie poked me repeatedly in the one spot on my arm that wasn't bruised. He'd broken my rib while performing CPR on me awhile ago, so he'd wrapped his flannel around my chest tightly to keep the broken rib in place.

"What do you want?" I asked mournfully. He offered a small smile and began to hum. I rolled my eyes and kept walking.

"A kiss, kiss, kiss in Tartarus," he sang softly. I couldn't help but chuckle. He continued to nudge me, rocking back and forth and signing his stupid little song. "It's all I need to forget all that I miss, I just want a kiss, a kiss in Tartarus," his smile grew as he sang, causing mine to do the same. "It'll send me to bliss! Just one, one kiss is Tartarus,"

He continued to hum and dance until I could no longer resist. I kissed him. The feeling really did give me hope. He was smiling when I kissed him. His happiness, even if just for my benefit, was contagious. Adrenaline pumped through me as if I had been given a new reason to survive. Charlie pulled away, dragging me to his feet as it did. I tried to resist, but my mind was still swimming with memories of the kiss we'd shared only moments before.

"We _can_ survive this," he said while I was still high on his love. "We are going to get out of here." He took my hand and ushered me to keep moving. "We _will_ make it home," he promised. I was drunk on his words.

"Come on,"

We kept going.

It was getting darker, that much was for sure. I'd lost my glasses in the fall, so add that to the darkness and I was practically blind.

"Why is it getting so dark?" Charlie wondered. "There's no sun here, it shouldn't be getting dark."

I shrugged. "Who knows? This place is strange."

"Jase, we've been here for months. It has never gotten dark before," Charlie said.

 _The darkness is coming for you_

We kept walking but I held my dagger a bit tighter. My broken arm was curved around my body protective, but I doubted it could take another hit.

 _The night is coming_

I stopped walking. "The night is coming," I repeated quietly. My brain began working overdrive as an idea came into process.

"There is no night in Tartarus," Charlie countered.

I shook my head. "Yes, there is."

Charlie's eyes widened and I felt his hand tense in my own. "Nyx was up there in the real world and she probably wouldn't come back here. I mean, who would _willingly_ go to Tartarus?"

 _You would._

I went quiet and didn't answer. My dad had willingly plunged into these depths for the person he loved, and I guess I did too. But Charlie didn't know that. And I didn't

I cleared my throat and changed the subject, "Nyx has many children. They mostly live in the Mansion of Night. She may have come back here for her kids but I seriously doubt that, so it's probably them who are causing the darkness."

"Nyx's children?"

"Yes. And if they're after us, then we're in trouble. My parents barely got past them. Mom and Dad acted like they were just tourists and complained that Nyx was boring, then started a fight between her kids about which one was her favorite," I explained.

Charlie smiled. "Your parents are awesome."

 _You'll never see them again_

"I know."

Something made a low hissing sound but I paid it no mind. Just sounded like another one of the monsters that had been penetrating my mind since the Arai took root.

"You hear that?" Charlie asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows and nodded. "Yeah, thought it was in my head," I admitted.

Charlie gave me a strange look but before he could follow up on, it suddenly went completely black. I couldn't see my an inch from my face. It was total darkness.

"Jase?!"

"Right here." I found Charlie's hand and we huddled together. "Stay calm," I whispered. We stood back to back with his hand curled behind him to keep ahold of me. My right arm wasn't able to move very well so I relied on him to keep us together as I raised my sword.

"Who's there?" I yelled, trying my best to sound confident and unafraid.

"We are the children of Night," Somebody spoke. "Where is our mother?" The voice sounded old. Not like mythology old, like grandpa old. It sounded like an old man.

"Uh, your mom? Nyx? Yeah, she's up in the mortal world. Causing chaos and, uh, and killing stuff. Good times," Charlie squeaked.

"She said she would return, yet she has not. What happened to our mother?"

Charlie nudged me to take over. I took a deep breath and tried to channel my mom. She always was able to keep her calm in this kind of situation. She tricked Nyx _and_ all her children.

"Nyx has been delayed so she sent us down here to check on you and send a message. What is your name?" I asked, plastering a fake smile on my face. I realized it was too dark for any of them to see my smile anyway but it helped me sound confident and cheerful.

"I am Geras, god of old age. I-,"

"And I am Eris, god of wars and strife. I am best suited to take mother's message," Another one interrupted. The two got onto a heated argument and soon, the other children began fighting too. As they fought, the darkness dimmed and I was able to see Charlie. He only shrugged and stared at the monsters as if he couldn't believe these things were actually capable of killing people.

"Can we sneak away?"Charlie whispered.

I shook my head as I watched the monsters fight. "No, the ones in the back aren't fighting. They're just watching us. And they were tricked by demigods here once before. If we run away, they will never stop until they kill us. Plus, if we run they'll think we killed their mother and then we're completely screwed," I explained.

"Right. So, act casual?"

I smiled slyly. "Just go with it," I said. "Hey! All of you dark dangerous children of Night!" I yelled, getting their attention. Most went quiet, except for two jerks in the back. "Listen, it doesn't matter who can best take the message because I'm delivering it to all of you!" I said with arms open wide. Charlie smiled awkwardly next to me.

"Well, what is the message?" Eris asked impatiently. I opened my mouth but no words came out. What was I supposed to say?

 _The truth. Your family is most likely dead, but you won't live to see if it is true._

I didn't ignore the Arai this time. "The Seven have been defeated," I said. I hoped it was a lie but I didn't have any way of knowing.

"I thought mother was coming back when she killed them?" A demon with ferocious yellow teeth asked. This demon almost seemed shy, prompting me to wonder which one it was. She stared suspiciously at me.

"Well, she wanted it to be a surprise," Charlie insisted. I nodded towards him then at the demons and monsters.

"Exactly! She is going to take over Olympus and the gods and she wishes for you all to stay here and relax while she does. When the gods are destroyed, then she will fetch you herself and give you each a throne on Olympus," I quickly lied. They believed their mother was coming back for them. I wasn't going to deny that. Nobody wanted to think that nobody was coming for them.

The demons bust into chatter, except for Geras and Eris, who turned to each other in anger.

"I shall be seated in the head throne beside mother," Geris growled.

"You shall not!" Eris insisted.

Charlie jumped between them, a very dangerous move. "Woah woah calm down you two! There's a throne on each side of your mother. Each of you get a throne beside her. But, don't tell your siblings," he promised. The children of Nyx seemed to like this. They nodded to each other in approval.

"So, sit tight and relax. Now we have to go back upstairs. Is there a message you would like us to deliver to your mother while we're there?" I asked. This plan was actually working. Charlie and I could just walk out of here.

"Yes, ask mother is she still wants us to attack the Greek and Roman camps," Eris said eagerly.

 _The camps will die. Those you love will die._

They were planning to attack Camp? Camp Half Blood was my home. Children and families and some of my best friends lived at Camp Jupiter. We had to stop Nyx's children from attacking the Camps. The Seven may not be back to protect them and there was no way to warn them. Charlie took my shocked silence as a reason to speak.

"No, actually. She would you to wait so she can be with you when you attack," he said.

Her children looked suspicious for the first time. "Are you sure? That doesn't sound like mother," one said.

 _They will suffer._

 _Everybody you love will die._

I let the Arai get to my head. I let their thoughts take me over and rush my mind. I was convinced that those I loved would suffer, that they would die.

"No," I said cooly. Charlie furrowed his eyebrows at my tone. I avoided his eyes. "Nyx wants you to wait to attack. She wants the demigods to lose hope before they die. She wants them to see their parents fall, the gods die. Then, you will sweep them to the side. Kill them all when they are their weakest."

Charlie's eyes were wide at my statement. The demons and monsters of Night were grinning. They loved it.

"That is a perfect plan, I can't believe mother never told us! This is the greatest surprise ever!" Eris clasped his clawed hands together in excitement.

"Yes, it will be a victorious day. Until then, stay here. Prepare. When the time comes, you will be summoned to the crack and we will ascend upon the demigod camps," I told them. Most nodded eagerly and a few fled back into the mansion.

"Very well," Geris spoke. "Tell mother congratulations on killing the seven and their children. Also, tell her I do appreciate her using my plan to send cyclops after their ship when they left their prison."

Charlie glanced at me uneasily. I swallowed my nerves and lost a little confidence when I spoke. "That was your plan?" I prodded, hoping to get more information.

"Yes, of course. After the Seven 'escaped' I advised her to send the cyclops after them until she could kill them. We both know we couldn't have defeated two generations of the most powerful demigods while they were prepared, even if the Seven were exhausted. So mother followed them, sending endless cyclops after their ship to wear them down. I hadn't thought she would have attacked by now. I assumed she would wait longer, but this is good news nonetheless. Then, when the time was right, late at Night, she attacked. Killing them while they were unprepared and resting. I am very glad to hear she succeeded," Geris seemed to pat himself on the back as he explain his plan.

I prayed his plan hadn't succeeded. We probably could have taken Nyx out in the cavern, but we didn't. We were escaping. And after Charlie and I fell, they probably kept going. So Nyx's plan (sorry, Geris's plan) could have worked. But if Nyx hadn't attacked them yet, as Geris expected, they may be alive. We had to find a way to warn them.

"That is a very ingenious plan, Geris. I am sure your mother is very proud. Now, we must get going. I will relay the news to your mother and tell her you all are well,"

"We are not well, we are terrible! We are the darkest and the worst!"

"Of course, forgive my wording. I will tell her you all are horrible and petrifying. Goodbye," I forbid.

Charlie took the corner of my shirt in his hand and we slowly turned around and walked away. I didn't want to turn my back on these beasts but it would be suspicious if we just backed away with our weapons raised. I took one last glance at the mansion. This is where our journey branches off from my parents. They went through the mansion, to the Doors of Death. But if the monsters we were following were correct, we were supposed to walk right by. Go in another direction. I didn't like the idea of following a different path, but I did _not_ want to go through the Mansion of Night. We'd had a similar journey to my parents but this is where that ended. Well, not _that_ similar. By now, my parents had already escaped and defeated Gaea and gone back to life as normal. Well, _normal_.

I took my arm out of Charlie's make-shift sling and grabbed his hand. I didn't care if it hurt, I needed to feel his touch.

"Well, this was an eventful day," Charlie said.

"An eventful night," I corrected. Charlie scoffed and smiled at my stupid joke. "I know you're tired, and I am too, but I think we should keep going. I want to get as far away from that mansion as we can," I pleaded.

Charlie agreed, "Yes. That place gives me a bad vibe."

"That's it?" I joked. "A bad vibe?"

"Yup."

((I forgot to update on Friday! Super sorry! I hope you'll accept my apology in the form of an extra chapter? Have a great week!)


	51. Caleo (Outside)

Percy was in the Poseidon cabin with Tyson. He was on the top bunk while Tyson was on the top. Percy had Oscar with him too, who had spent every waking moment crying. It took an hour to get him to go to sleep.

"Ok, I think he's down for the count," Percy finally said. "Try not to wake him."

Percy saw Tyson nod through the mirror opposing the bed. Tyson hadn't cried yet, or at least not that Percy had seen. He made sure his son was comfortable, then stood on the bed and stuck his bed over the rail of the top bunk.

"Ty, how are you handling this?" he asked.

Tyson sighed thoughtfully and looked down at his hands. "Jase told me that if anything happened to any of them while they were gone, that is was very important for me to try and be positive and calm, and to remember that everything was going to be A-OK," he said.

Percy sat back down in the bottom bunk. He never thought he'd hear Tyson say "A-OK" is such a sad voice. He tried not to imagine his son talking to Tyson, telling him it would be ok. Little did he know. Percy wondered that if Jase still would have gone if he'd have known what was going to happen. Then he felt guilty because he knew Jase still would have come to save them. Jason Jackson had the same fatal flaw as his dad, and nothing would have stopped him from helping the people he loved. Percy hoped Charlie Valdez was worth it, then felt guilty for the thought.

"I could go look for him," Tyson suggested quietly and unsurely.

It took Percy a moment to digest what his half-brother had said. When it had really sunk in, he jumped up and once again stuck his head over the top bunk.

"What?!"

"I'm a cyclops, I could survive the jump. I could look for him and-"

" _Half_ cyclops, and no. That's not going to happen. I've lost one person to that place, I'm losing another. We just have to wait. I've already threatened the gods, there's nothing else we can do," Percy insisted.

"I _could_ -"

"No. Drop the subject. There's not way I'm ever letting you do that, so don't even think about it. And even if you did go, Tartarus is a big place. You'd never find them."

Percy didn't want to admit that for a moment, he considered it. He was so desperate, he'd actually considered letting his brother venture into Hell.

"Tyson, don't go. I really need a brother right now."

Tyson climbed down and sat beside his brother. They didn't speak. Tyson was secretly glad that Percy wouldn't let him go. He'd do anything for his nephew, but the thought of going into Tartarus -especially alone- terrified him.

Percy let the subject drop once the dinner bell rang. He wasn't really hungry, but he got up anyway. Regrettably, that meant he had to wake up Oscar.

Annabeth was waiting for them at the entrance to the pavillion. She took Oscar from Percy's arm and kissed both of their cheeks. She laced her arm through her husband's and lead him to his seat.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," she said softly.

Percy didn't respond. There was an extra place setting at the table. Nobody had told the nymphs not to prepare the table for all six Jacksons. But nobody moved the plate. Adora was napping and Casey was sitting at the Demeter table with her friend Nathan, so the table was practically empty anyway.

Leo and Calypso didn't sit down. They were leaning against the large pillars and picking absently at their food, not eating it. Neither of them were speaking but they were were pressed so closely together that their elbows hit each other when they tried to pick up their forks. Percy doubted that was why they weren't eating.

Will was walking down the center aisle towards the Hades table, but froze in front of the grieving couple. He stared quizzingly at Calypso, even tilting his head as if he were trying to figure something out.

Percy knew that look. He'd seen it four times. Dropping his fork, he stood up and speed-walked towards the couple.

"Wait, you're-" Will didn't get a chance to finish his question.

"Not here!" Percy interrupted. He grabbed Leo and Will and pulled them outside then grabbed Leo's arm, dragging him out of range of the demigods' hungry ears.

"Percy! What are you doing?" Leo hissed.

"This is for your own good, I don't think you want an announcement like this in front of everybody right now," Percy explained. He gave a pointed look to Will.

Before the doctor could speak, Calypso gasped. She clutched her stomach and whipped her head towards the son of Apollo. Will nodded. Leo's gaze switched between the two for a moment before his eyes landed on Calypso's hands. Something clicked. Realization struck him like a state of the art bullet train.

He clamped his hands over his mouth and tears sprung to his eyes. His legs shook and the look of uttermost grief crossed his face. He looked to Percy.

Percy and Leo had never been particularly close. But right now, Percy was the only person that understood the mixture of pain and happiness that Leo was feeling.

"Leo-"

Percy was interrupted by a pair of arms tightening around him. He hadn't expected the hug. But he understood it. He knew that Leo needed a friend right now, that he didn't want to show his pain in front of his wife.

Calypso was pregnant.


	52. Casey's Quest (outside)

It was four months after _it_ happened, when Casey finally got another quest. It was a small quest, no prophecy. But to Casey, it was a big deal. She'd overheard Chiron mention that there was a need for a quest to be issued, and she didn't even know what the problem was when she volunteered. Besides Casey, Katrina Grace also said she'd go. Last to join their trio was Rose Underwood. She claimed to go so she could sense when monsters were nearby, but really it was to keep an eye on the still-mourning Jackson.

"I don't need your protection," Casey joked.

Rose smiled, crossing her arms and adjusting the rasta cap on her head. The cap had been a present from Grover when she was titled a protector a few years earlier. "Ah, but isn't that just what Jacksons and Underwoods do?" she said with a smirk.

Casey grinned. "We'd love to have you come."

All was going well and the girls were all packed and ready to go by the time Percy and Annabeth found out about their plan.

"No," they quickly decided.

Casey felt herself deflate. "What? Why not?!"

"It's unsafe! And Casey, you've never been on a quest without…" Annabeth trailed off when the conversation reached the topic of her eldest son.

"Without Jase? Yeah, I know. But if that's your only reason then you might as well keep me forever because he isn't coming back!" Casey yelled.

Neither of her parents answered. Everybody close enough to hear went silent.

"Cas-"

"I'm going. It's just some low-life stealing supplies. I'll be fine. I promise to Iris Message if something goes wrong. I love you." With that, Casey pulled her backpack over her shoulder and ran to catch up with Kat and Rose, who were already waiting at the border. Casey didn't regret what she'd said. She was angry at Jase for leaving her alone in this gods-forsaken world. Going on this quest was her way of saying _I don't need you_ to the one person she needed most.

"How'd your parents take it?" Rose asked.

Casey shrugged. "They'll get over it." She took a deep breath and stepped across the border. She was more nervous than she looked. As her mom had reminded her, Casey had never been on a quest by herself. But that was kind of the point. She wanted to prove that she didn't need him, even though she'd give anything to have him back.

"So should we take a bus to the New York harbour? The last robbery took place on Mill Rock island, so we'll need to go by boat from there," Kat said, cringing slightly. Like her dad, Katrina Grace wasn't the biggest fan of boats.

"Does anybody have a bus pass?" Rose pointed out.

"Oh, I do!" Casey blurted, digging in her bag for her wallet. She stopped when she pulled the pass out. It was her brother's. Jase's name was printed in small, neat letters on the back of the pass. He gave it to her so she could use it to go to the library.

There was silence for a few seconds. "Why don't we just get a taxi?" Kat suggested.

Casey nodded. "That's probably a good idea."

So Rose took out her phone and quickly called a taxi to pick them up on the road at the base of Half Blood hill.

"Now we should get going before a monster picks up on our call," Casey said. The other two agreed and they hurriedly made their way through the dense forest surrounding the camp.

While waiting, they practiced sword fighting and made a plan of action. Kat and Rose fought while Casey got a notebook out and jotted down notes and ideas. Jase always did that, so Casey was too. She didn't know what Jase wrote down. There wasn't really much to plan out at this point. Get a boat, go to Mill Rock, get rid of bad guys.

"Jackson, the taxi's here!" Rose called. She was almost a foot taller than Casey and Kat, so she almost always noticed these types of things first.

Casey gather her things and joined her friends in standing on the side of the road. The taxi slowed as if wasn't sure if it were in the right place. Kat waved, signaling him to stop.

"Hi! I'm Rose, this is our taxi?" Rose hinted, sticking her head through the window.

"Oh, yes! Of course. Any bags I can help you girls with?" The man asked, instantly softening his voice. Casey roller her eyes and hopped into the backseat.

"No thank you. We'd like to go to New York Harbour," Kat said. She didn't need charmspeak to get the driver to agree. All she needed was to show her credit card, "accidentally" advertising the signature at the bottom (Tristan McLean).

Casey had never seen such a friendly taxi-driver. He looked mainly at Kat when he spoke, taking quick glances at the wallet in her hands. Casey mostly ignored the driver. She couldn't help but imagine Jase's reaction if he would have seen the way the taxi driver was eyeing them. The ride was long and boring. Casey didn't want to talk about the quest with a mortal so close, but she couldn't think of anything else to talk about either.

"So, how did Adora react when you told her you were going on a quest?" Kat asked, pulling a stick of beef jerky from her bag.

Casey felt her chest tighten. "Shit! I didn't tell her!" She felt guilt building up immediately. "Oh my gods, I forgot to tell her I was leaving!"

Jase always spent five minutes to say goodbye to each of his siblings and his parents anytime he left on a quest. Casey had been so caught up in being mad at her brother that she forgot to be like him.

"I can't believe I forgot!"

"Chill, it'll be fine. We'll just IM her when we get to the harbour. She was busy when we left anyway," Kat said.

"No you don't understand, he _always_ say goodbye before he leaves!"

"He?"

Casey paused. She dropped her head to her hands. He. Her brother. Her perfectly perfect older brother who never did a single thing wrong in his life. Except for ending it.

"You don't have to replace him, Casey," Rose said softly.

"Somebody has to. Who else will tuck Adora in or help Dad make dinner or give us all rides to school or pick Oscar up after daycare or send Dad reminders when there's an anniversary or birthday coming up? The world needs Jason Jackson," Casey said.

"But it also needs Casey Jackson," Rose argued.

Kat was deep in thought. She knew Rose was right, but she couldn't help agreeing with Casey. Jase taught the swordsmen class for all the younger campers and was the go-to babysitter in Camp Jupiter. He was the only one who knew how to change the setting on the lava wall and was always willing to help kids sneak past the harpies at night to get to the kitchen for midnight snacks. Nobody else knew the secret orders at all the coffeeshops in Camp Jupiter, or could actually calm Peleus down, or could get Casey to take a dam chill-pill every once in awhile. Nobody else could play a game of cards with Mr. D without wanting to chop their own head off.

The rest of the ride was silent.


	53. Casey's Quest (Outside world)

It was four months after _it_ happened, when Casey finally got another quest. It was a small quest, no prophecy. But to Casey, it was a big deal. She'd overheard Chiron mention that there was a need for a quest to be issued, and she didn't even know what the problem was when she volunteered. Besides Casey, Katrina Grace also said she'd go. Last to join their trio was Rose Underwood. She claimed to go so she could sense when monsters were nearby, but really it was to keep an eye on the still-mourning Jackson.

"I don't need your protection," Casey joked.

Rose smiled, crossing her arms and adjusting the rasta cap on her head. The cap had been a present from Grover when she was titled a protector a few years earlier. "Ah, but isn't that just what Jacksons and Underwoods do?" she said with a smirk.

Casey grinned. "We'd love to have you come."

All was going well and the girls were all packed and ready to go by the time Percy and Annabeth found out about their plan.

"No," they quickly decided.

Casey felt herself deflate. "What? Why not?!"

"It's unsafe! And Casey, you've never been on a quest without…" Annabeth trailed off when the conversation reached the topic of her eldest son.

"Without Jase? Yeah, I know. But if that's your only reason then you might as well keep me forever because he isn't coming back!" Casey yelled.

Neither of her parents answered. Everybody close enough to hear went silent.

"Cas-"

"I'm going. It's just some low-life stealing supplies. I'll be fine. I promise to Iris Message if something goes wrong. I love you." With that, Casey pulled her backpack over her shoulder and ran to catch up with Kat and Rose, who were already waiting at the border. Casey didn't regret what she'd said. She was angry at Jase for leaving her alone in this gods-forsaken world. Going on this quest was her way of saying _I don't need you_ to the one person she needed most.

"How'd your parents take it?" Rose asked.

Casey shrugged. "They'll get over it." She took a deep breath and stepped across the border. She was more nervous than she looked. As her mom had reminded her, Casey had never been on a quest by herself. But that was kind of the point. She wanted to prove that she didn't need him, even though she'd give anything to have him back.

"So should we take a bus to the New York harbour? The last robbery took place on Mill Rock island, so we'll need to go by boat from there," Kat said, cringing slightly. Like her dad, Katrina Grace wasn't the biggest fan of boats.

"Does anybody have a bus pass?" Rose pointed out.

"Oh, I do!" Casey blurted, digging in her bag for her wallet. She stopped when she pulled the pass out. It was her brother's. Jase's name was printed in small, neat letters on the back of the pass. He gave it to her so she could use it to go to the library.

There was silence for a few seconds. "Why don't we just get a taxi?" Kat suggested.

Casey nodded. "That's probably a good idea."

So Rose took out her phone and quickly called a taxi to pick them up on the road at the base of Half Blood hill.

"Now we should get going before a monster picks up on our call," Casey said. The other two agreed and they hurriedly made their way through the dense forest surrounding the camp.

While waiting, they practiced sword fighting and made a plan of action. Kat and Rose fought while Casey got a notebook out and jotted down notes and ideas. Jase always did that, so Casey was too. She didn't know what Jase wrote down. There wasn't really much to plan out at this point. Get a boat, go to Mill Rock, get rid of bad guys.

"Jackson, the taxi's here!" Rose called. She was almost a foot taller than Casey and Kat, so she almost always noticed these types of things first.

Casey gather her things and joined her friends in standing on the side of the road. The taxi slowed as if wasn't sure if it were in the right place. Kat waved, signaling him to stop.

"Hi! I'm Rose, this is our taxi?" Rose hinted, sticking her head through the window.

"Oh, yes! Of course. Any bags I can help you girls with?" The man asked, instantly softening his voice. Casey roller her eyes and hopped into the backseat.

"No thank you. We'd like to go to New York Harbour," Kat said. She didn't need charmspeak to get the driver to agree. All she needed was to show her credit card, "accidentally" advertising the signature at the bottom (Tristan McLean).

Casey had never seen such a friendly taxi-driver. He looked mainly at Kat when he spoke, taking quick glances at the wallet in her hands. Casey mostly ignored the driver. She couldn't help but imagine Jase's reaction if he would have seen the way the taxi driver was eyeing them. The ride was long and boring. Casey didn't want to talk about the quest with a mortal so close, but she couldn't think of anything else to talk about either.

"So, how did Adora react when you told her you were going on a quest?" Kat asked, pulling a stick of beef jerky from her bag.

Casey felt her chest tighten. "Shit! I didn't tell her!" She felt guilt building up immediately. "Oh my gods, I forgot to tell her I was leaving!"

Jase always spent five minutes to say goodbye to each of his siblings and his parents anytime he left on a quest. Casey had been so caught up in being mad at her brother that she forgot to be like him.

"I can't believe I forgot!"

"Chill, it'll be fine. We'll just IM her when we get to the harbour. She was busy when we left anyway," Kat said.

"No you don't understand, he _always_ say goodbye before he leaves!"

"He?"

Casey paused. She dropped her head to her hands. He. Her brother. Her perfectly perfect older brother who never did a single thing wrong in his life. Except for ending it.

"You don't have to replace him, Casey," Rose said softly.

"Somebody has to. Who else will tuck Adora in or help Dad make dinner or give us all rides to school or pick Oscar up after daycare or send Dad reminders when there's an anniversary or birthday coming up? The world needs Jason Jackson," Casey said.

"But it also needs Casey Jackson," Rose argued.

Kat was deep in thought. She knew Rose was right, but she couldn't help agreeing with Casey. Jase taught the swordsmen class for all the younger campers and was the go-to babysitter in Camp Jupiter. He was the only one who knew how to change the setting on the lava wall and was always willing to help kids sneak past the harpies at night to get to the kitchen for midnight snacks. Nobody else knew the secret orders at all the coffee shops in Camp Jupiter, or could actually calm Peleus down, or could get Casey to take a dam chill-pill every once in awhile. Nobody else could play a game of cards with Mr. D without wanting to chop their own head off.

The rest of the ride was silent.

AU: How do you think/want this story to end?


	54. Surprise sister (Outside)

They arrived at the harbour thirty minutes later. Kat paid the driver and the girls quickly piled onto the curb with their things.

"You sure there's nothing else I can do for you?" The driver asked.

"No, thanks. Bye!" Kat passive aggressively hinted. She smiled, then turned on her heel and pulled the girls with her towards the water.

"Where do we get a boat?" Rose wondered.

If Jase were there, he would have summoned a herd of dolphins for them to ride, because he knew Casey loves dolphins. But Jase wasn't there.

"Why don't we just steal one?" Casey suggested.

Rose grinned in agreement. Kat, of course, did not like the idea. Her roman rule-following side was convinced that stealing a boat was wrong.

Casey smirked and looked at the expensive yacht a few yards away. Nothing secured it but a singular rope.

"It's can't be wrong if it's so easy to steal."

Kat didn't get a chance to argue. Rose took Casey's hand and pulled her towards the boat. The name across the bow of the small ship read _Neptune's Cradle_.

Casey had never driven a boat that moved as fast as the Neptune's Cradle. The experience was nothing like riding a dolphin. Actually, it was much easier. If Casey wanted to stay on a dolphin, she had to wrap her arms around its neck and hang on for dear life until the ride was over. If Casey wanted to ride a yacht, she only had to sit back on her nice reclining leather seat and watch for debri. Rose didn't like the water much. It made her feel sick to be so far away from land. But she was the only one who knew how to read the tourist map the taxi cab had given them.

It was basically a straight-shot towards the island. The girls docked their stolen speedboat and locked it up so they could ride it back when they were done. Most of the island was covered in tall buildings like the rest of New York, but there was a small part of forestry on the beach of the East side of the island. The trio decided to head to the forest. Demigods and other mythical beings didn't tend to do well in the big city.

"Should we split up?" Kat pondered. "Casey and I could head to the city. Rose can mess around the wildlife or commune with the furry critters."

Rose wasn't listening. She was too busy messing around with the wildlife and communing with the furry critters. The squirrel in front of her was chirping wildly and Rose was responding as if it were a normal conversation; nodding her head and looking up when the squirrel went quiet. Kat and Casey turned away and continued their own dialogue.

"No, we'll stay together. This group is too small to split up. Demigods are most likely to be in the woods, so the thieves would too," Casey decided. Kat nodded in agreement. Before the girls could try to make some sort of plan, Rose approached them. She was holding the small furry beast in her hands. Casey never realized how big and malignant a squirrel's teeth were until that moment.

"There's some sort of demigod camp on the North face of the woods. The campers got there about to days ago," Rose relayed.

"There's a good chance they've seen something." Kat looked around as if the camp was somewhere behind a tree nearby.

Casey rolled her eyes. "Can the little dude lead us to the camp?" She did not like talking to animals. It was weird. She was reminded of the time her dad was forced to converse with a poodle, and decided he probably felt the same way she did now. The squirrel didn't seem to care that she didn't want to talk. It let out a defiant squeak in her direction, then jumped from Rose's arms and bolted into the underbrush.

The squirrel obviously knew the lay of the land much better than the girls. Rose had kicked her shoes off at some point when they were running. She now jumped through the weeds and roots with her cloven feet out in the open. The other two girls tripped and skidded their way along and wished they were satyrs. Casey took out her sword and began swinging at everything that got in her way. Kat and Rose kept their distance to make sure they weren't included in that spectrum. They lost the squirrel a few times, but it always appeared again, clinging to the side of the tree and angrily screaming at them in whatever language varmint spoke.

Rose stuck her hand up in the air in a tight fist- the symbol to stop. Kat stopped so suddenly that Casey ran into her and made all three girls fall over.

"Is that the demigod camp?" Kat asked.

Casey rolled her eyes. "No, it's just a random campsite that has a sword leaning against the tent."

The trio approached the camp with their weapons drawn. A figure was hunched over the campfire. She had long brown hair that was pulled into a loose ponytail, and she was wearing an old worn blue Goode Swim Team jacket. Casey frowned and lowered her sword.

"Estelle?" She recognized her aunt from the back. She looked a lot like Grandma Sally. It helped that she was wearing Percy's old school jersey.

Estelle turned around with a smile as worn out as her jacket. It had been Percy's before she stole it. "Casey! What are you doing here?"

"We're on a quest, what are _you_ doing here?"

Estelle frowned and fiddled with her necklace. "Your dad can't know, not until I know for sure. And your grandmother can _never_ know that I'm out here."

Kat raised a single eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't worry, we are pretty good at not telling people things."

Estelle sighed and stood, dropping her hand onto Casey's shoulder. "I was talking with the huntresses when they caught some kind of monster who had been working with some thieves. I heard your brother's name and the hunter's gave me some supplies to track down the guy's story," she explained.

"Wait, so you're tracking down Jase?" Rose stepped in.

Estelle shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I think I'm tracking down a monster that ran into him at some point. But it might know something."

Casey was frowning at a nearby tree. Rose hoped she was just thinking and not glaring at another squirrel. "That might have something to do with our quest," she suggested. Casey finally turned away from the tree. The hopelessly victorious look on her face made Kat wonder if she just won a staring contest with the poor plant.

"Do you know where we should be going?" she asked,

Estelle nodded and pointed in the direction of the water. "Yeah, but they stole my supplies. I don't have the resources to go after them. Now that you three are here, maybe we stand a chance."

"Ah, no. Kat, Rose and I will go check it out. You will either stay here or go back home before Grandma Sally finds out what you're really doing" Casey said. Estelle was a senior in high school, she was eighteen. She was almost three years older than Jase, who was just over fifteen. Jase was about to be a junior in high school (he skipped two years.)

Estelle looked like she wanted to argue. But she knew Casey was right. Sally was already worried enough every time Percy walked out the door, she didn't need another kid sucked into this life.

"Fine. I'll go home. But only if you promise to keep me updated, and Iris Message me as soon as you get back." Estelle sounded a lot like Sally. Casey nodded in agreement, smirking.

"Ok, just go down that trail there until you reach the beach. The giant wooden boat there is the one you're looking for. There's a person, or at least it looks like a person, inside. He's the one that I tracked down from the monster that the Hunters got," Estelle explained.

AU: Are there any other characters you'd like added to the story?  
Also, the last author's note did not mean the book was ending, I just wanted to kow some of your ideas :) I've got a long ways to go before I'm finished


	55. Pirates (Outside POV)

The girls said their goodbyes to Estelle and sent on her way with a bag of supplies. The trail she'd shown them looked like a deer trail. It was small and narrow, forcing the girls to either walk single file or be eaten by the underbrush.

The beach was nice. It was a warm day. But the wind was strong enough enough to nearly knock the girls off their feet, although Kat didn't seem to mind. Every time there was a particularly large burst, she simply lifted her feet off the ground and floated until it past. The closer they got to the beach, the more annoying the wind got.

As Estelle said, there was only one boat on the beach. Well, not exactly a boat. It was smaller than the Argo, but it was still a ship. The gangplank was out and there was sign beside it, stuck into the sand to welcome all guests.

" _Trade floor open! Find your trade or treasure here!"_

The girls shuddered against the breeze and quickly huddled up the ramp. Kat insisted it was a pirate ship. She didn't understand that it was nothing but a large bartering boat. It seemed to be mythical in nature, as told by the third eye of the man who walked off the boat past them.

"Casey, they steal stuff and sail across the seven seas! They're pirates," she insisted.

Casey rolled her eyes. "They don't kidnap people and make them walk the plank, or wear eyepatches, or have peg legs. They're not pirates, Reyna can tell you that. And they don't travel all seven seas; that's not exactly an easy feat. Trust me, it took Jase and I like five months."

Kat shrugged as Rose laughed at her and they boarded the gang plank. Inside, it looked like a Walmart. There was a dirty shelf of mostly open candy bars. Casey grabbed one of the few unopened energy bars for herself. Weapons hung on the walls, some behind glass cases. On hangers were shirts from Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter and a few of what the trio recognized as Olympian robes.

"Why does that look so familiar?" Rose asked, pointing at something hanging on the wall. Kat's eyes went wide and she tried to push Casey out the door. Casey, being particularly stronger, didn't move an inch. She looked up at the wall and gasped. Casey tensed in an untamed anger that only her brother knew how to keep in check. Kat tried though, gently putting her arm around Casey's shoulder and whispering soothing words.

"Uh, sir?" Rose calmly getting the barter's attention. She felt worry seeping through her body but she chose to approach the situation with peace. Her voice was trembling.

"Ah, chosen an item?" The barter wrung his hands together. He didn't notice the girls' discomfort.

"Yea. How much for that sword?" Rose asked, pointing at Jase's sword that hung on the wall. There was a large chip out of the handle. Dried blood smeared its blade. Rose wondered whose blood it was.

"I'm afraid you've chosen our most valuable artifact. It's rumored to have belonged to a Jackson," the barter said. Casey growled. It took every ounce of strength Kat had to keep her from tearing across the room in a bloody rage and strangling the man.

"A Jackson, really? That's very interesting. Which one did it belong to?" Rose tried to keep her voice from shaking.

"Assumingly one of the children. We, acquired it, after the eldest Jackson child fell into Hell. This sword belonged to _the_ Jason Jackson. Slayer of the Minotaur, killer of the Drakon, conqueror of the River of Lamentation. It is said that he still lurks in the shadows of monster's hell, boiling with rage at the one who put him there."

Kat's heart skipped a beat. Casey went red. Nobody felt the need to restrain her this time. They didn't want to be polite anymore. Now with Tartarus on their minds, they only felt anger and despair.

"We're going to need that back now. I'm sure my _brother_ will want it when he returns home," Casey spat.

The old man stared at confusion. Casey glared at him and took her dagger half way from its sheath.

"Brother?" His eyes widened in fear. He turned from Casey to gaze at the sword on the wall. He wasn't scared of her. He almost looked like he was scared of the sword, or of the one who had beheld it.

"Yeah, brother! Now give me the gods-damned sword before I make you!" Casey yelled.

Kat laid a hand on her arm to calm her for just a moment. "Who sold you that sword?"

"I cannot say!"

"You'd better say," Kat threatened. She was doing everything she could to hold Casey back. But if the barter wasn't going to talk, she didn't care what the grief-stricken sister did.

"You will have to kill me! Or die trying," the barter oozed.

"Gladly," Casey growed. Before she or the others could reach the keeper, he swung the wheel of the ship at such a sharp angle that the wheel snapped off and rolled the floor. Immediately, the ship tilted. Its passengers smashing into the starboard side of the boat, along with all its cargo. The sudden unbalance of weight forced the ship to capsize.


	56. Pirates suck (Outside POV)

Water flowed through the portholes. The taste of the sea did not energize Casey like it did for her father or brother. She knew how to swim, but she couldn't breath under water. She couldn't control the waves that were pulling her under.

Rose and Kat scrambled onto the deck, but Casey didn't follow. Her brother's sword gleamed in the sunlight as it sunk to the floor of the over-flowed ship. Despite her friends' cried and pleas, she dove in after it. As the boat sunk, the cabin Casey was in was running out of air. She could no longer go through the windows due to the pressure of the water filling the room. She swam quickly to the top and gulped in one last breath before water surrounded her completely. It stung to open her eyes. She could barely see past the irritation, but it was too dark anyway. She pounded at the sides of the boat but it did nothing to aid in her escape. The ship finally broke apart when it hit the sand. Casey swam through the broken hull and kicked up towards the surface.

It was hard to hear underwater, but the sound of a growl was unmistakable. With Jase's sword tight in her hand, Casey turned around. The threat was a pair of brightly glowing yellow eyes. It was some kind of aquatic monster that Casey couldn't see enough of to recognize. It lurked in the dark of a cave. Taloned tentacles lurched forward, wrapping around Casey's ankle. The hooked leg stung as it scraped across her skin and pulled her further into the deep. Casey closed her eyes and prayed. She prayed to her grandfather, god of the water. She prayed to her father. Son of the seas. She prayed to her dead brother, desperately searching for a way and a will to live. If she died now, she would go to the afterlife. If Jase was really dead, and if his soul escaped the confines of Tartarus, then she would be able to see him again. But that was a lot of ifs. And her family had gone through enough. Casey knew her parents wouldn't be able to handle the death of another child. Somebody had to look after Adora. Somebody had to teach Oscar about the hero his big brother was.

Suddenly, the water churned at her feet. At first, Casey thought it was her. But she had no tug, no feeling. She didn't feel any weaker or any stronger at the water's display. Besides, she knew she didn't have any powers of Poseidon. The sand twisted up and joined the water to create a hurricane. Casey's stomach lurched at the sight. It took Jase two years to perfect those hurricanes. He could do them in his sleep; it was his signature move. If she were above the water, tears would have been visible. But she was underwater, so it just stung her eyes instead.

The hurricane didn't touch Casey. The speed of the water was sharp enough to cut through the tentacles attached to Casey's feet. It was more dangerous than the hurricanes Jase used to make. The monster bellowed in pain. It was cut off by the hurricane. As Casey swam towards the surface, she could hear the monster gurgling as if it were choking.

Before she could pass out, Casey thanked her grandfather. And just in case, she thanked her brother too. Just before darkness overcame her, Casey swore she could hear someone screaming in her head.

When Casey came to, she was half-buried in the sand. The sand had clumped around her head as the blood from her new wound dried. She hadn't even realized that she'd gotten hurt. Judging by how far the wind had piled the sand utop her, Casey assumed she'd washed on shore about half an hour earlier. She couldn't see Kat or Rose anywhere, and she couldn't hear them either. Slowly, she pushed herself upwards. Her head was pounding. Her arms were still intact and neither of her legs were missing, so Casey decided she'd probably be fine. The only impairing pain came from her skull.

The boat had sunk with her, so there were no landmarks to help Casey decipher where she was, or where the others were. From behind her came a short invertebrate chirp. The squirrel's angry beady eyes glared down at her from a branch halfway up the tree.

"You!" Casey yelled, pointing accusingly at the small mammal as if it were the one to cause her head injury. Thinking about it, she thought the head injury was probably the reason she was screaming at a squirrel. Her throat burned from the near-drowning incident, but yelling the the critter seemed absolutely necessary. Before she could do it again, the squirrel let out a long chattering sonority and took off into the trees.

Casey jumped up to run after it, but fell straight onto her face at least two times before regaining her bearings. Her head was still reeling. Her vision was spiraling but she somehow managed to stumble after the furry creature. Branches slapped her cheeks. Roots reached out for her ankles and caused her to lose her footing again. Casey didn't even know where she was going. The squirrel had disappeared as soon as Casey had stood up, or maybe that's just because there were still black dots swimming through her vision. She wanted to slice the trees down the center, but soon realized that she was no longer holding her brother's sword, or her own. The defeating regret didn't slow her down. The anger pursing through her veins actually caused more endorphins to rush into her brain and make her run faster. She was frustrated, which was more than normal for Casey. At the moment, she was mad at the trader for taking her brother's sword and trying to steal it, she was angry at herself for going after it. And she was pissed off at her brother for jumping into Tartarus and losing it in the first place! None of this would have happened if Jase had just let it go, and let Charlie Valdez fall alone. Then only one of them would be dead. Before Casey could think of more people that she was mad at, she broke free of the forest and into a clearing.

Kat and Rose were on the other side of the clearing, dripping wet but otherwise unhurt. Kat was waving her arms wildly and Rose had her eyes clamped tight as if attempting to use utilize their empathy link.

Casey sighed in relief at the sight of her two friends. Her parents would have been way too angry if she got herself lost in the middle of nowhere on Mill Rock Island.

"Ok, so we finished the quest? It's barely been four hours! Think there are more pirates out there for us to track down? I don't want to head back to Camp just yet."

Kat flailed around, jumping in surprise. Rose screeched, "Holy Hermes cows, where have you been?!"

"Got attacked by a sea monster, washed up on shore, and got buried by the sand. But your little asshole squirrel buddy showed up and irritated me and now I'm here," Casey explained short temperedly. Rose sprang forward and gave Casey a hug. Casey awkwardly returned the gesture. She wasn't big on physical contact.

"Don't worry me like that," Rose urged. Casey shrugged, the Jackson sign of agreement.

"And to answer your question," Kat butted in, "there's probably more pirates out there, but we won't run into any unless we plan on doing some heavy traveling."

Casey couldn't decide if this was good news or bad news. Of course, it was nice that the threat was neutralized. But that also meant they had to go back to Camp. Casey was not ready to go back to Camp.

"How about we got out for ice cream before heading back home?" Kat suggested wryly. Kat was very Roman. For her to suggest something against the rules was a big deal.

Casey smiled, a real smile. "That sounds great."

AU-Do you guys think I should start uploading twice a week instead of once a week? Also, the next few chapters are probably going to be mostly outside POV so I can catch it up to what's happening to the boys down under. Thanks!


	57. Ice cream-with a twit (outside Pov)

The best ice cream Casey had ever had was in New Rome. But she could settle for the parlor by her house. The ice cream was a little family run joint with a little convenient store and gas station out front. The Jacksons had been going there for years. It wasn't the most amazing ice cream, but it was good enough for Casey.

"Casey, nice to see you again. What can I get for you today?" The owner's daughter, Jannet, was working behind the counter today. Jannet had a giant crush on Jase, so she'd always been extra nice to Casey and her friends. Percy and Annabeth parents had to go to the police department when they got back to file a missing person report. They'd asked not to have it put on the news, but it somehow go there anyway. Casey's phone was filling up with texts and calls from people at school asking what had happened to him. She, of course, didn't answer these. So Jannet must have known, but she thankfully didn't say anything. Jannet had worked in the ice cream shop long enough that people use ice cream as a distraction.

"I'll have the usual. A scoop of huckleberry and a scoop of cookie dough for my friends here, too."

Jannet nodded and began getting their orders ready. "The place is pretty empty so you'll get your choice of seating today," Jannet noted as she slid the ice cream across the counter. Casey smiled appreciatively and slid a ten over the glass.

"Thanks, Jannet."

The girls sat down at a window booth next to a big window in the back of the shop. They didn't talk about monsters, or quests, or missing big brothers and Valdez spawn in Tartarus. They didn't even mention the new scar blossoming behind Casey's ear.

"So are you guys still coming to Jon's game this weekend? I think he's really looking forward to this one," Kat said. Jon was on the baseball team. Usually, they got the whole family together for these events.

"Yeah," Casey responded. "But dad's going to be late. He's got a swim meet."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Don't you think it's a little unfair that _Percy Jackson_ is on a swim team? That's got to be cheating."

"He doesn't cheat!"

There was a sudden sound of shoes squeaking on tile as somebody jumped out of the booth behind them and slid into the seat beside Kat. He was an ugly brute. Crazy blonde hair and even crazier baby blue eyes. His face was pale and the girls would have thought him a homeless creep if it wasn't for the ripped purple toga sash he wore. He was short and scrawny. The toga sash slipped off of his shoulder as if it were trying to escape.

"I heard you say Percy Jackson you said Percy Jackson where is Percy Jackson I need to get to Camp Jupiter immediately I need to know where Percy Jackson is," he rushed urgently. He sounded angry. Jealous, even.

"Who the Hades are you?"

The guy shook his head disbelievingly. "It doesn't matter. It is your duty to get me to Camp Jupiter as of immediately."

Casey pondered for a moment if this guy was a god. He certainly didn't look the type, but he did act like an entitled royal. Casey glanced up to make sure Jannet was in the back room. She lunged across the booth and grabbed the collar of the idiot's shirt. She pulled him forward, slamming his face onto the table.

"Tell me your name before I rip your ear off." She kept a tight grip on his ear and pulled slightly, earning herself a quick squeal.

Rose scrunched up her nose and looked away. "Disgusting. Can't you do that outside or something? I've just started my ice cream!"

"No, I cannot do this outside. If you'd like, I'll buy you a new ice cream," Casey said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Now, _sir_ , who are you?"

"Fine! But you'll regret this. My name is Octavian Rowell. Centurian of the first cohort, augur of Camp Jupiter, legacy of Apollo. I'd suggest that you get your hands off of me now."

Casey let go and shoved him into an upright position. She laughed. "Dammit, you're not dead. You can't find the camp, right? You've been disowned, kicked out. The only reason I'm not killing you is because you look too pathetic to kill." Obviously, Casey had a much more violent personality than her father.

Rose, usually a calm and controlled satyr, suddenly lurched forward and quipped Octavian in the face with a hoof. She quickly stuffed her feet back under the table and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "That's for insulting my father.

Octavian held his broken nose and turned away defensively. "I don't even know who your father is!"

"Grover Underwood!"

"Who the Pluto is Grover Underwood?"

"My father!"

"Well I got that part!"

Kat coughed, awkwardly ending the argument. Rose glared across the table and crossed her arms.

"Is nobody going to address the fact that he died?" Casey asked.

Kat shrugged. "So did Leo."

"Leo died?" Octavian asked hopefully. Kat let the reflection of her knife glint in Octavian's face as a warning to shut up.

"He's back now."

"What? That's impossible! The doors of death are closed, the Labyrinth entrance has not been found! People can't come back from the underworld anymore!"

If Casey's dagger hadn't sunk to the bottom of the ocean, she would had stabbed him. Judging by Octavian's view on death, he had survived being fired from a cannon during the war with Gaea. What a pity.

"What should we do with him?" Rose asked.

"Bring me to Camp Jupiter! I need to rekindle my legion! We are still on a mission to-"

"Dude, that ended long ago. Your legion is gone. Any of the traitor demigods that couldn't be rehabilitated were thrown out, like you. The Greeks and Romans are allies now. Frank Zhang and Reyna and the praeters. Rachel Dare gives the prophecies."

Rose was staring at the wall in distaste and confusion. Her mouth dropped open but she didn't speak. Neither of her friends seemed to notice.

"I say we bring him back to Camp Jupiter like he asked. Let Reyna decide to do with him. Maybe her dogs will eat him for lying," Casey suggested.

"If you kill me, I'll never tell you the location of Luke Castellan," Octavian growled.


	58. A voice from downstairs (Outside Pov)

(Au: This chapter takes place about a month after the boys fought Campe in Tartarus. I'm trying to catch up to the point they're at; we'll get there soon so you can get a update on how Jase and Charlie are doing!)

"So are we bringing him to Chiron or to Reyna?" Rose asked, her voice low and uncertain. She wasn't mad anymore. Rose didn't think there was a word to explain the emotion she was feeling. Her dad had been the one to bring Luke to camp, and he still felt responsible for what Luke did. Grover used to say he wished that Rose had gotten a chance to meet Luke before his mind was turned, or at least before he'd died. Grover once spent an entire afternoon talking about Luke. He stopped mentioning Luke after Rose commented that Luke sounded a lot like Jase. And Octavian was, well, Octavian. The idea that he knew something about Luke, who had been dead for over forty years, was insane. But they had to listen.

"We'll bring him to Camp Half Blood. Let Chiron decide what to do with him, maybe have Nico call Reyna or something," Casey decided. Octavian sneered at the sound of Nico's name.

At the entrance to Camp Half Blood, Casey knew something had happened. The border patrol didn't seem at all bothered that they were bringing in Octavian, they didn't seem to notice.

"What's going on?" Rose asked.

Nathan Gardner met them at the entrance. "About an hour ago all these giant monster things ran into camp. They don't seem to want to fight though. I'm glad your back. Maybe you can figure this out," he said to Casey. He smiled cheekily at the other two girls. "Hi, Rose. Hi, Katrina."

Kat rolled her eyes. Together, the four walked past the field and saw what the commotion was about. Casey couldn't see the grass in the field anymore. The entire thing was taken up by cyclops with hundreds of arms protruding from their bodies.

"The hundred handed ones? I thought they were all dead," Kat whispered. Percy was crouching beside one of them with Tyson. Annabeth was standing behind them with a look of constrained horror. Casey approached her mom

Annabeth jumped. She turned in surprise and hugged Casey. "You're back! I thought you said you'd be a few days." Annabeth didn't mention the argument they'd had, so neither did Casey. She shrugged and let her bag fall to the ground. Nathan picked the bag up, carefully brushing the dirt off and kneeing to aid the small weed it had crumpled.

"Didn't take as long as we thought. Found Octavian. How are the Hecatoncheires here?"

"You found Octavian? I thought he was dead!" Annabeth exclaimed.

Percy whipped around. "Casey! What did you say about-" he stopped when his eyes caught the prisoner's. "Octavian," he growled.

"Ok you can deal with him, I can deal with the monsters in our strawberry fields," Casey said. Percy nodded in a leader-like fashion, barely addressed his daughter as he walked by. He roughly grabbed Octavian's arm and marched him to the big house. Casey approached one of the Hecatoncheires.

"What are you doing here? Where have you been? How are you here? Where were you?" she interrogated.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and lightly pushed Casey out of the way. She crouched and stroked the giants cheek. "Are you ok?" she spoke gently.

"Jackson," the hecatoncheires said. Annabeth removed her hand and looked back at Casey.

"Uh, which one?" Casey asked sarcastically.

The giant looked up for the first time. It scanned the area, then shook its head. "Sing for me," another hecatoncheires said. "Cousins of Poseidon. Karaoke in Tartarus." It spoke nonsense. "Taxi, grandchildren of Poseidon, we, distinctly remember we, break you."

Casey threw her arms up and scoffed in anger. "That makes no sense! Why can't they just tell us what we want to know? What does this even mean?!"

Annabeth rested a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Casey, calm down. They've been imprisoned for years. They're probably trying to tell us what happened, but their minds are too damaged. We just have to think about this."

"Think about what? It makes no sense!"

Annabeth's mouth dropped open slightly. A look of realization crossed her face, a look that most found dangerous but Percy found cute and Casey found hopeful.

"A cousin of the grandchildren of Poseidon. Singing. Sirens! Something about sirens!"

Casey tried not to look impressed. "And that tells us nothing. What else do you have?"

Annabeth stroked her chin in thought and began tapping her fingers against the hilt of her dagger. "Karaoke in Tartarus. That sounds like something only Leo would say. The hecatoncheires are related to the cyclops, they may have the same ability to repeat things."

"What's that have to do with Leo?"

"Maybe it wasn't Leo. Maybe it was Charlie. And maybe the Jackson was Jason Jackson."

As soon as Annabeth said her son's name, the hecatoncheires nearest to her looked towards the others. It opened its mouth, but the voice that came out wasn't its own.

"What are you doing? I can help you! My dad helped you, remember the Jackson guy? I'm a Jackson too! We're good guys! Charlie, where are you? Charlie!" It was Jase's voice. He sounded weak, panicked.

Leo ran around the corner, suddenly skidding to a stop when he saw what was happening. "Why did that cyclops just scream my son's name?"

There were tears running down Annabeth's cheeks. "That was Jase. It was quoting _Jason_! That means he's alive!"

"Or he _was_ alive. Did you hear his voice when he was saying Charlie's name?" Casey said glumly. Her heart was pounding at the sound of her brother's voice. It had been six months since she'd last heard him. He sounded older. Much more scared, but so much more experienced too.

"What else did he say?" Casey screamed. She drew her sword and threatened the hecatoncheires. "What happened to him? When did this happen! What else did he say?!"

The hundred handed ones backed away in fear. The ground began to rumble, causing tiles to fall from a few of the cabin's roof's. Somebody grabbed Casey's shoulder and pulled her away.

"CJ, it's not worth it. They don't know anything, and you're going to cause them to trample the camp if you scare them any more," Nathan advised.

"You heard it, didn't you? It was him," Casey sniffed. Nathan and her had been friends for years. He knew her reaction to things was usually anger. Casey was his best friend, and it hurt him to see her like this. She seemed to broken. Jase had been the one to train both of them. They even got their own private classes. He knew how much Jase had meant to Casey, which is why she was so mad now. Nathan also knew that Jase would want him to help her now too.

"Yeah, I heard him. What did you notice about his voice?"

Casey hastily wiped the tears away from her eyes. "He sounded scared. Confused. Jase hates being confused."

Nathan offered a shy smile. "Everybody hates being confused. But I think I noticed a few more things than you. When Jase spoke, he didn't sound hurt. Maybe a bit dehydrated, but his voice was strong. He sounded determined."

Casey smiled, looking back at the hecatoncheires. "You're right. Thank you, Nate. It means a lot that you're helping me. Most people don't bother when I get all angry like this," she said in a short, reluctant moment of honesty. She was waving her hands around as if to demonstrate.

Nate blushed a pearly pink color. He rubbed his hands together and shuffled awkwardly. "Most people are just scared of you." He wasn't expecting Casey to be nice.

Casey raised her eyebrows. "And you're not?"

Nate's pink cheeks migrated into a bright red. "What? No, of course not! I mean, a little? I guess, well, I don't know; do you want me to be?"

Casey just laughed and shook her head. She grabbed Nathan's hand. "Come on, we're going to see what's happening to Octavian. I need to tell Dad what happened," Casey shouted. Nathan hesitantly followed, dragged by a very eager Casey Jackson.

"Wait, Octavian? That seems like a terribly unsafe idea!"

Octavian was locked in makeshift cell in the basement while everybody else decided what to do with him. He refused to say anything more about Luke, but that was to be expected.

"There's a jail in New Rome. We could put him there and have him serve out a sentence," Kat suggested.

"We could send him back to the mortal world?" Rose said.

Casey, taking her place as head of the Athena cabin, shook her head. "No, he knows the location of both camps, and he wants to create an army. He's preparing for something. We need to find out what."

The cabin leaders plus Percy and Annabeth sprout ideas back and forth for over an hour. Nothing as delicate as this had come up since planning Oscar Jackson's baby shower, therefore all the cabin leaders were there. Except for the Poseidon cabin. His chair sat empty. Percy should have taken his place but he didn't.

Chiron coughed to stop the conversation. "We will send Octavian to the Jupiter prison in the morning. Until then, everybody get some rest. It's been a long day."

Nathan bumped Casey's arm encouragingly as they trekked to the cabins. "Hey, I heard the Hunters are coming in tomorrow. I bet that means Capture the flag. Wanna make a battle plan or something?" he suggested.

Casey shrugged and kicked a rock. "Not in the mood."

Nathan nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I figured. I'll wake you up when the hunters get here tomorrow morning."

Casey smiled. "Thanks, Nate."

AU again: How do you guys want the reunion (if there is a reunion:)) between Tartarus boys and the outside world to go? I'm open to suggestions!


	59. We're coming (outside POV)

Casey had dreams of monsters that night. Strange wispy white creatures. _We're coming,_ they'd whisper, over and over again. They seemed to fly right by her, barely noticing. She could hear somebody whimpering in the distance, but she couldn't see them. Somehow, Casey knew the spirits weren't talking to her. She woke up with a silent gasp and clung to her sheets.

"What the hell," she muttered. She got out of bed and splashed some water onto her face.

"CJ, you awake yet? Thalia is looking for you! You'd better hurry before she decided to kill me for taking too long," Nathan joked, pounding on the door. A few other Athena kids groaned and pulled their pillows over their heads to drown out the noise.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" Casey had slept in her clothes that night, thanks to a late training session and fuck-it-all attitude, so she ran her hands through her hair and proclaimed she was ready to go.

"Given any thought to the capture the flag game tonight?" Nate asked.

Casey shrugged. "Maybe you should make the plan this time," she suggested.

Nate's eyes widened in surprise and he tripped over his shoes, falling flat on his face. "Why would you ever suggest something like that! I mean, I get it if you want me to help you start an indoor garden or something, but _battle strategy_? Yeah, no hecking way."

Casey just shrugged again. She couldn't get the image of the strange nightmare monsters out of her head. What did they mean? What _were_ they, and why was she seeing them?

"What's wrong?" Nate asked.

"What? Nothing's wrong I never said anything was wrong why would you just assume that something's wrong?" Casey snapped back.

Nathan raised his hands in surrender. "That attitude doesn't work on me. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to, but just remember that I'm here for you, ok? I know you don't like the cheesy stuff as much as you do like the anger stuff, but I'm here if you want to talk or punch something. Or both," he said.

Casey felt a strange tight feeling in her test. She turned and fiercely hugged Nate. Before he could even realize what was happening, Casey quickly shoved him away. She stormed forward as if nothing had happened. If it weren't for the bright tinge to her cheeks, Nate may have thought it hadn't. He smiled to himself and followed.

"I take it this means you'll help with the battle strategy then?" There was a slight skip in his step as he ran to catch up.

"Maybe. Let's go meet Thalia at the border."

Nathan pretended not to notice her change the subject. He respected the hunters, but he didn't like them all that much. They were scary and most of them didn't like him just because he was a guy, which Nate viewed as unfair. Plus, Casey had always had a peaked interest in the Hunters of Artemis, another thing that scared Nathan. He liked the idea of Casey living forever but he really didn't like the idea of never seeing her again, or her being completely off limits. Then the hunters would really hate him.

"Thalia!" Casey yelled. She didn't give Nathan a second glance as she left him in the dust to greet her hunter friends.

Thalia, who usually didn't like much physical contact, enveloped Casey in a hug. Neither of them spoke. Thalia wore a short pendant around her neck, matching the one that Jase wore. When Jason Jackson was first born, Artemis helped Thalia craft two pendants. Thalia had one, and Jase had the other. They were made of the strongest metals in the world, crafted to never be destroyed. Thalia said that he could show it to any huntress he'd ever meet and they'd know who is and help him. Now, the necklace was just a painful reminder that he would never be able to ask for that help. But Thalia didn't take it off.

Thalia noted the sad look on Casey's face. "I'm going to beat your ass in capture the flag tonight," she said.

Casey tore her eyes away from the necklace with a dull smile. "You wish. Nate and I have a solid plan to win."

"We do?" Nate interrupted.

"Shut up," both girls responded.

Thalia smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. "We'll see. Anyway, we have a few hours until then. Where are your parents? Making out somewhere, I assume."

"I hope not. Last I saw, they were in the big house talking to Chiron and Nico."

Thalia's eyes flashed in worry before she masked it in confusion. "Nico?"

"Yeah, I think Will's in there too but Will is always with Nico so that doesn't really mean much."

Thalia nodded towards one of her lutendiants and walked to the big house. The door was closed, a rarity at Camp Half Blood. The big house door was almost never shut. Thalia, being the considerate demigod she was, kicked the door open.

"You two stay put," she ordered Nate and Casey. The pair exchanged a glance and followed her.

"Thalia, I'm afraid now is not the time. I can speak to you later-"

"What happened?" Thalia interrupted. Percy and Annabeth sat on one of the chairs, squished together and posed in each other's arms. Chiron stood in the center of the room. Sulking in the corner was Mr. D and Nico sat in another one of the chairs. Will stood over him with a guarded look. Leo and Calypso were standing against the wall, their hands clasped together over Calypso's bulging stomach.

"You know something, don't you?" Casey asked.

Thalia threw her arms into the air. "I thought I told you to stay outside!"

Nate pointed his finger accusingly at Casey. Thalia rolled her eyes. Percy left his wife's grip to go to Casey. "Yeah, we know something. We were going to come get you after Nico explained it."

Fear gripped Casey's heart. She grabbed Nathan's wrist desperately as if it would save her from any news she was about to receive. Casey was smart enough to know what this all meant.

"Nico is able to feel when a soul dies. We didn't think he'd be able to tell if he was in Tartarus, but he can."

Tears sprung to Casey's eyes. Beside her, Nate was already crying. He was silent, but tears left tracks on his cheeks as they fell to the floor.

"He died, didn't he? Is he in Elysium now?" he asked numbly.

Nico bowed his head. "I felt him die. It was different than usual, but that was probably because of where he was. His soul isn't in Elysium. It never made it to Hades' realm."

"You mean he's still down there?"

"His soul is, yes. We don't know if there is anything though, maybe his soul died with him."

Casey was trying to process everything. Jase was dead. He was really dead. There was no more hope of him popping back in after he escaped, because he wasn't going to escape death. "What happened? Can you tell how he died?"

Nico looked uncomfortable. "I don't know."

"Was it quick?"

Nico swallowed. His eyes flirted to the ground. "Yeah," he lied, "it was quick," he lied. The room went silent. Percy and Annabeth looked broken. It was broken by Leo taking a deep breath.

"What about Charlie?"

Nobody wanted to say anything. Casey felt a quick burst of anger. How dare he ask about Charlie after news like this! Nate laid his hand over hers to calm her. She took a deep breath and realized she would have done the same thing.

"I didn't feel anything about Charlie's soul."

Calypso let out a breath she'd been holding. She held her stomach almost desperately.

"Anything else?" Thalia asked. Her voice was eerily monotone. Her fingers were wrapped around the pendant she wore. She was staring at the ground.

"Somebody's fooling with Hypnos," Mr. D said. He sounded satirical, mordant. Casey wanted to yell at him. She always yelled when she got mad. But now, all she wanted to do was walk into the ocean and never come back.

"What do you mean?" Chiron finally asked.

"Hypnos sees all visions, all dreams, all that mumbo jumbo. Somebody's been putting dreams so bad in somebody else's mind that Hypnos is now blocking his ability. Can I go now?"

"What does this have to do with anything?" Annabeth asked. Her eyes were cold and calculating. She was wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and her hair was a mess, not to mention the blotchy red spots around her eyes. But she was still threatening.

"Zeus told me to tell you, don't ask me."

"Whose dreams are they?"

"How would I know? I'm a god, not a psychic." With that, Mr. D saunted outside onto the deck.

"What do you think that means?" Chiron asked.

"It doesn't matter," Percy snapped back. Frankly, he really didn't care if Hypnos was having bad dreams. He grabbed Riptide and stomped out the door. Annabeth stared after him. She took the blanket and pulled it further over herself, not moving from the chair.

"I'll make some tea," Chiron suggested.

AU-Sorry I forgot to update this week! I made this chapter a bit longer and I'll upload another one too.. Then we'll be all caught up and I'll go by to chapters from the outside and in Tartarus


	60. A death worth mourning (Outside POV)

Casey didn't want to help make Jase's shrine. She didn't want to decorate it or make it stand up or put it in the boat or saw a few words. So she elected Max to speak instead. He was Jase's best friend, surely he would be able to think of something better than her. After all, it seemed Casey didn't know her brother as well as she thought she did. She was numb. Anger, sadness, grief, more anger. She was angry at Jase for making the plan that lead to this, she was angry at him for jumping after Charlie, she was angry at him for not coming back home. She was angry at him for not surviving. He said he would. He promised Casey they'd all have dinner together again, and he told Adora he'd come back to tuck her in. He said he would cheer louder than anybody on the day that Casey graduated high school, and that he would always be there to mouth the words to Adora's part when she was on stage or in a play at school. But he wasn't.

The shroud was beautiful. Jon and Katrina did most of the work. It took them all day. They thought that if they took longer, it might delay the truth. But you can't procrastinate death as easy as you can homework.

Max stood in the center of the crowd. He was shaking. He stared at the small dingy that held Jase's shroud as it was pushed into the lake.

"He was my best friend," he said. He was already choking on his words. After the first sentence, he couldn't continue. He dropped the cue cards he'd spent the whole day writing. "I can't do this." And he walked off. Hazel and Frank were waiting on the sidelines with open arms. Hazel, now almost seven months pregnant, cried almost has hard as Max did.

Casey couldn't let her brother go without a speech. Somebody had to say something. But nobody stepped up. Their heads were bowed, hands firmly pressed together. So Casey pulled away from her parents' grip and ran to the center of the crowd where Max had stood. She was tempted to pick up Max's cards, but they didn't have the words she wanted to say.

"Jason was the best brother I could have asked for. He helped me with homework, made breakfast every morning, scared off school bullies. Before we lost him, I'd never been on a quest by myself. He was always by my side, more concerned about my failing math grade than he was about the monster about to kill him. He never talked about his future. He never spoke of falling in love or getting a job or even getting his diploma. He once told me that demigods didn't have long life spans, so why should he worry about planning his future when he can help others achieve theirs?"

There were some mumbles of agreement in the crowd. A few of the younger kids shuffled anxiously, remembering Jase telling them they should go to school instead of staying year long at Camp.

"He was a lot of things. A brother was only one of them. He was a son, a cousin, a nephew, a godson, a friend. He was a trainer, a teacher. He was an idiot at using the toaster."

A few people laughed.

"But he was a genius at battle strategy. He was great at making plans. He was the best babysitter, and the only person I know who could beat Mr. D at poker or program the lava wall to throw rocks at you. He knew how to build a treehouse, how to program twinkle lights, how to fight with one hand behind his back and his eyes closed. Every single person here will remember him a different way. Maybe you'll remember his classes, maybe you'll remember him throwing blue cake across the pavilion on Dad's birthday last year. Or perhaps you'll remember him as a warrior who gave up everything under the small chance that he could save the life of somebody he'd only known for a few weeks. But no matter what way you remember him, at least you will remember him at all. We won't let him be forgotten. Remember what you've learned from him, what you wished you learned, what you never learned but knew he wanted you to know. Don't let my brother be just another shrine to sink to the bottom of this lake." Casey took the bow and flame-lit arrow from Chiron. Her hands were shaking almost too much to let it go. There was a moment of silence in the camp before Casey let the arrow go. It flew across the water and landed on the boat. It burned greedily.

Casey wondered if Jase knew his shrine was being burned. She wondered if his soul had indeed died with him, or if it was still trapped in Tartarus. Casey wondered how he had died, but that made her think about how he'd lived. He was alive for months. Over six months he had been walking through that place, trying to get home. It seemed to unfair that he had survived so long just to die that far in.

"Casey, you ok?" Nate whispered. Casey hadn't realized that she was still standing in the center of the group. She swallowed her grief and nodded. She let Nate lead her away. She closed her eyes and leaned into him.

"He's actually dead," she said.

Nate nodded and hugged her into his side. "Yeah, he is." He lead her shivering form to the beach, stopping when the waves tickled their feet and caused them to sink into the sand.

"Why are we here?" Casey asked softly. She was too upset to be angry, which was a whole new low for Casey.

"You can't talk to Jase's spirit because it's not in Hades' realm, and I think this is the closest thing. When you were on your quest, the water reached out and helped you in a way that Jase would have, maybe some part of him is out there. Maybe not his soul, but his spirit or something. Think of it as talking to a tombstone," Nate suggested.

"Spirit isn't a real thing."

Nate rolled his eyes. Beside him, Casey said down in the sand and curled her arms around herself. She sniffed quietly, no longer trying to hold back the tears. Nate took a step back to give her privacy. He walked a few yards down the beach and sat on a rock. He took his feet off so the sand could run between his toes. He glanced at Casey, who was mumbling incoherently to the waves.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Nate said to the waves. They said nothing back.

"I've never had to deal with something like this. Nobody told me what to do when my best friend's brother jumps into Hell. I've been with her when she's angry before, but never like this. I think she's going to say she's mad at you, but she's not. She's just upset. I'm going to try to help her, but I don't know how. I wish you were here, maybe you could tell me what to do." Nate paused. The waves were too calm. But Jase would have been calm too if he were there. Closing his eyes, Nathan could imagine Jase sitting in the water in front of him, calmly folding his arms over his legs with that funny smile he always wore when somebody was talking to him.

"What should I do? I miss you, Jase. I never got the chance to join the quest where you disappeared. I've never really done a big quest at all, but somehow I still feel guilty. I wish I would have been on that quest with you and Casey. Maybe I could have done something, you know? Casey is angry that you jumped. But I think I get it. If somebody I cared about was in danger, I would have done the same thing." He looked up at Casey again. She was throwing small stones into the water. The sun was just going down. Its light reflected off of her hair, the breeze caused it to wave slightly. She looked so sad, but the sight of her still caused Nate to blush, even if she wasn't looking at him. He looked back to the ocean, trying not to picture Jase standing in front of him.

"Jase, I wish you were here, because I really don't know what to do. I'm in love with your sister."

AU: What do you dear readers wish to have included in this story? BTW the next chapter will be of the boys downstairs


	61. A Warning (Tartarus POV)

We walked until we could walk no longer. We eventually found a small hole in the rock wall we were able to use as a cave this time. It was too small for any monster to be staying in and it was the perfect size for the both of us to lay down in each other's arms and sleep. Charlie took first watch, insisting that I needed to rest so my wounds would heal. He got the last of Damasen's herbs out.

"No, Charlie. Save those. I'm healing fine and if something else happens, we'll need those," I insisted. He nodded and put the herbs back in the bag. I hope nothing else happened but I doubted that would be a granted wish. We never went long before running into trouble. I took a long time to fall asleep but I finally did after about half an hour of Charlie singing soft Spanish lullabies and running his hand through my hair.

 _Casey was sitting on my bed in the Poseidon cabin. She held her head in her hands as she cried. I knew this was another nightmare. She looked so upset. I would give almost anything to be there to comfort her, to tell her it would be ok. I was alive, but she didn't know that. Charlie and I had been gone for months. They probably assumed we were dead._

 _Somebody else entered the cabin. I recognized him as Nate, son of grandson of Demeter. "Hey Casey, you doing ok?" he asked softly. I wanted to yell that no, obviously she wasn't ok. But I knew I would be able to say anything. This nightmare was different from the rest, it felt more like a normal demigod dream. That worried me._

" _Jase is dead. He's officially dead now, Hades said it himself. How do you think I'm doing?" Casey spat. I shook my head even though I knew she couldn't see me. Casey lashed out when she was upset. It was hard to get through to her or to get her any help when she was like this._

" _Want to talk about it?" He smiled a familiar looking smile. I knew Nate had a thing for my sister, but I also knew he hadn't seen her upset like this before. He had to sit down and just let her speak. No poking, no prodding._

" _No, I don't. I want to be left alone."_

" _Casey," Nate's smile fell into a frown. He didn't know what to do, and I could tell it was tearing him apart._

" _Go away," she sobbed._

 _Nate swallowed and took a deep breath. He wanted to help her, but he didn't know how. She told him to leave, so he left. After he had gone, Casey lifted her head. She looked terrible. Bags weighed down her eyes and she was pale, skinnier than last time I'd seen her. She hadn't been taking care of herself. I had done this to her. It was my fault._

' _No,' I thought. 'Not this, end it. Let this nightmare be over,' I begged the Arai._

' _This is not a nightmare,' one replied._

 _What? This had to be a nightmare. What else could it be?_

 _Casey got out of bed and went to the dresser. Stuck to my mirror were many pictures There were a bunch of me and other kids at Camp. A few of me and my siblings, then one of my parents. She glanced over all of them, then plucked a particular picture off the mirror. It was of Casey and I, taken last summer. It was the last day of summer so Mom had taken a picture of us under Thalia's tree. We did that every year, just the two of us. When we younger, Casey was taller than me. And over the years, I grew to be taller than her. Barely. In this picture, she was rested her elbow on my shoulder and taunting me about how tall she was. I smiled at the memory. It had bugged me at the time, but now I missed it so much. I missed my sister. I missed all of my siblings and the rest of my family, my friends and my teachers. I even missed my Camp chores. I would never take my life for granted again. I may be alive here, but it didn't feel like it. This was worse than being dead._

" _Six months. Come back to me, Jason," she whispered. A tear slipped down her cheek and onto the photo. Six months?_

" _I'm trying," I promised. I felt myself beginning to cry._

 _Her head snapped up and she dropped the photo. Wait, that couldn't be right. She didn't hear me. Right? She couldn't. Her eyes drifted back up to the mirror and her her expression turned to one of shock._

" _Who…?" Her eyes turned cold and her expression to anger. She grabbed her sword from next to the bed and swung it towards the mirror. I stuck my hands up in a defensive manner and glanced away for a moment._

" _If you're the one that took my parents, just show yourself. Fight me!" She yelled. "Because of you my brother is in Hell so come out and SHOW YOURSELF! Fight me, you coward!" She was crying now, but she still looked more angry than I'd ever seen her. The whole scene began to fade. No, no not yet! What I'd this was real? What if this was an actual demigod dream? I needed to warn her! Well, there was no harm in trying._

" _Nyx is coming! She's sending the Cyclops. She let you escape on purpose. It's a trap!" I yelled. For the first time during a nightmare, she heard my warning. Her mouth dropped open and she let go of the sword. It clattered carelessly to the ground. She was still staring at the mirror._

" _Jase?"_

I woke up gasping, unlike most mornings. "It's a trap it's a trap," I muttered as I woke. Charlie looked down at me with concern.

"What happened?" He asked. He knew this was different than most dreams.

"I, I don't think it was a nightmare," I said.

Charlie furrowed his eyebrows and scoffed. "Well, it sure sounded like a nightmare. You were yelling about traps, nearly alerted all of Tartarus of our location."

"Sorry," I apologized.

He shrugged it off. "It's ok. Not your fault. Anyway, what was your dream about then, if it wasn't a nightmare?"

I bit my chapped lips and thought for a moment. "Casey. At camp. She said something about us being gone for six months and she was crying. When I said something, she actually heard me. It was different. I think it was a demigod dream. I wasn't able to tell her anything except to warn her about Nyx. Then I woke up. No Arai, except when one told me it wasn't a nightmare. Nobody died, nobody was being tortured. I'm telling you, it was different," I explained.

Charlie took my hands and rubbed circles into my palm with his thumb. "I believe you," he said. "Maybe you actually were able to warn her. Now they'll be prepared, they will survive."

"Can."

Charlie smiled sadly and nodded. We both missed Bob and Damasen. I wondered if they got out yet.

 _They couldn't have survived._

 _They died long ago_

I hope they made it to Alaska, started a little farm. I hoped Bob could see the stars. I could really use Damasen's words of wisdom. He always knew what to say. It seemed that he knew the answer to everything. When we got out-if we got out- the first thing I would do is take my family up to see them. Just to make sure they was ok. I wanted to see them again so badly. Somehow, Bob and Damasen had provided a real home in Tartarus-literal Hell. No, worse than Hell. Hades's realm and the fields of punishment were Hell. This was worse.

"Charlie, your turn. Go to sleep," I said. Charlie nodded and got comfortable. He had nightmares too, I knew it. You couldn't be a demigod in Tartarus and not have them. But he didn't talk about them much. He said they weren't that bad, especially compared to mine. Sometimes he woke up with a yelp or with tears, but not often. He seemed to be adjusting to life here. We both were. A few months ago, six if Casey was right, Charlie was a normal kid. He went to a normal public school and spent his summer playing video games and hanging out with his friends. He didn't have to worry about monsters killing him and everybody he loved. Now he was here. Stuck with me.

(AU: Now both inside Tartarus and the outside world are all caught up... :))


	62. A warning (Outside POV)

Casey was packed and ready to go at soon as dawn's light shown through the windows of the Poseidon cabin. Her suitcase was sitting beside the bed. Jase's bed. It was the one right in front of the mirror. The bed was covered in sticky notes with reminders of birthdays and combat strategy and everybody's prefered type of pancake. The mirror was covered in pictures. Casey had to look away. Her head dropped to her hands and she began to cry. She didn't even stop when the cabin door opened.

Nate walked softly. He knew she'd be crying. She'd been crying since they burned Jase's shrine.

"Hey Casey, you doing ok?" he asked softly. He didn't know what he should do. Should he stay and talk? Hug her? Leave her alone? Get somebody else like her parents to help?

"Jase is dead. How do you think I'm doing?" Casey spat.

Nate knew she wasn't actually made at him, but it still hurt to hear her speak like that to him. "Want to talk about it?" He tried for a smile

"No, I don't. I want to be left alone."

"Casey," Nate's smile fell into a frown. He wanted to desperately to help, but he just didn't know how.

"Go away," Casey sobbed.

Nate swallowed and took a deep breath. He nodded and waved his hands awkwardly at his side. He took one last look at her and left the cabin. He wasn't sure how to help and he didn't want to make her feel worse by staying.

After he had gone, Casey lifted her head and stood up. She plucked one of the pictures from the frame of the mirror and brought it to her chest.

"Six months. Come back to me, Jason," she whispered. A tear slipped down her cheek and onto the photo. She knew he couldn't come back, he was dead. The room suddenly went cold. A chill went down her spine and she dropped the photo.

" _I'm trying."_ A cracked voice filled the room around her, coming from no particular direction. It sounded like a ghost. Or a god. Her head whipped up and her eyes darted around the room, stopping at the mirror in front of her. The scene was horrendous. The ground was salted with sharp rocks and the scene was surrounded by tall jagged cliffs. There were cracks in the ground where fire could be seen bubbling beneath. But what shocked her the most was the startled figure staring back at her. His hair was long, and raggedy facial hair was nearly hidden by the giant bruise that covered the left side of his chin. Blood flowed from the multiple gashes on his body. His clothes were torn to shreds and he looked to be in so much pain that Casey didn't want to admit he looked familiar. He was curled in a tight ball in the arms of another boy, his head down but his eyes open and staring at her. The other boy didn't seem to notice, although Casey could tell he was awake.

"Who…?" Anger filled her lungs. She could practically feel the steam coming off her body. She grabbed the sword her brother had gotten her and swung it mercilessly around the room. The boy in the mirror winced and raised his hands, showing off the unnatural shape of his broken arm. Casey was spurred with aggression at this point. It had to be a trick, something created by Nyx to haunt her.

"If you're the one that took my parents, just show yourself. Fight me!" she yelled. "Because of you my brother is dead and that really pisses me off so come out and SHOW YOURSELF! Fight me, you coward!" She felt hot tears stinging her cheeks and her vision was blotched from crying, but she barely noticed.

Then the voice came again, she recognized this time that it was the boy speaking. " _Nyx is coming! She's sending the Cyclops. She let you escape on purpose. It's a trap!"_

Casey knew the voice. She spent only a few seconds trying to decide if she was insane, not noticing her sword drop to the floor.

"Jase?"

But then he was gone. Nothing answered her. The image in the mirror was gone, as was the terrifying scene of her older brother.

"Jase! _Jase!_ JASON!" She kept repeating the name until it no longer sounded like a real work and it became distorted in her mouth as she sobbed and smashed her fists into the floor. It was Jason's voice, she was sure of that. It was Jase she'd seen in the mirror. The boy whose shrine she'd only just burned, whose death she had barely come around to accept.

He hadn't said anything but to warn her about Nyx. Nyx was coming, she'd tricked them. But how could that have been real? Casey knew it was possible, even probable, that something like that could happen, but Casey didn't trust her sleep deprived mind. But the image she'd seen was too realistic, too terrible, to be faked by even her brilliant mind.

So she did what any confused child would do, she ran from the cabin to find her parents. The images were still prominent in Casey's mind. She wasn't sure if it was real, but she needed to find out. It had been six months, it was time she asked her parents about the place her brother had been trapped. She cautiously tapped on the door of the big house. Chiron was having a closed door meeting with Percy and Annabeth, but they did that every day so she knew they wouldn't mind.

"Mom, Dad, can I come in?" she called.

"Of course, honey," came Annabeth's reply. They hadn't heard Casey ask for anything so nicely in months; they couldn't say no. Casey walked slowly into the room, not compiling when Percy motioned for her to sit. He frowned with concern.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Um, what does Tartarus look like?" she asked quietly. Percy and Annabeth strained closer as if they'd hoped they'd heard her wrong.

"Casey, you don't need to-,"

"Is the floor made up of sharp rocks? And are there cracks of lava in the ground and big cliffs everywhere?" she quickly added. Percy paled and stumbled backwards so he could take Annabeth's hand.

"How did you know that?"

That's when it hit Casey that what she'd seen was real. Her hand flew to her mouth to hide the sob that had already escaped her lips. Jase was alive, but he looked like he'd been tortured. He looked more dead than any corpse Casey had ever seen. But he was alive. If what she had seen was real, he wasn't dead like Nico had thought.

"Casey!" Percy ran to her side and she clung to him. "It's ok, it's not so bad," he soothed.

"He sent me a warning, I saw him," Casey cried. "He's alive, Jase is alive!"

(To clarify, the chapter where Nico felt Jase die takes place at the same time that Jase and Charlie fought Achlys, when he did technically die... I hope that didn't confuse y'all too much! Now we're back on trck so I'm going to be switching between Tartarus POV and outside POV where the timelines actually match. Thanks for reading!)


	63. Trouble on the Horizon (Tartarus POV)

_He would have been better off without you. You should have just given up in that river before this all began._

Charlie would never be able to feel normal again. He would never be able to walk around the city without a hand close to his weapon or walk down a street without looking over his shoulder. He wouldn't be able to stay home all summer and sleep in and play video games. He would be worrying when his dad went off on "business trips" or when he saw something strange lurking in the shadows. He was stuck with this life now, forced into it. My parents had been training for years. They could control their powers and could fight by each other's side easily. They weren't prepared for Tartarus, but they were more prepared than Charlie. He didn't even have shoes when he arrived. He didn't know how to properly hold a sword.

But now he was a warrior. He'd been forced to be a soldier. _I_ had forced him to be a soldier. He shouldn't even be here. He should be with his mom and dad at home. He should be happy.

 _Then he shouldn't be with you_

That night (or day, I don't really know what time is was) we weren't disturbed. Nothing found us that night. We weren't attacked. It was a small thing, but it provided Charlie and I with adequate rest. I mean, mostly. We only slept for a few hours each time we took a break but our bodies had gotten used to the change. We could function without the sleep. We could fight.

"Ready?" Charlie asked.

I shrugged. "Yeah. I guess. Where are we even going? We don't have anything to follow," I pointed out glumly. Charlie smiled and pulled me to my feet.

"I know, but we need to drink the lava stuff."

I groaned, "Fine." I hated the fire water. I despised it. We were stuck in Tartarus, the least we could get is airplane peanuts. A vending machine would be nice too. Yup, I was definitely losing my mind.

My arm was throbbing. Charlie and I had tried to shove it back into place so it wouldn't heal wrong but it didn't seem to be working. I could still barely lift it and you could see bone where bone was not supposed to be. I wondered where that curse had come from. What cursed me to have a badly broken elbow? And what cursed me to be helpless during a fight? I assumed the Minotaur was the one to blind me, and Khione was the one to curse Charlie with her ice. My ribcage almost seemed to be healing, but judging by the pain I guessed it wasn't healing correctly.

We arrived at the river bank. I had learned to tip my head back and slide the fire down my throat as quickly as I could. I would never complain about badly tasting medicine again.

I wondered how Casey was doing. Was that the real Casey I saw in my dream? If so, I hoped she knew what to do. Casey was smart, one of the smartest people I've met. If I told her the cyclops were a trap and Nyx was coming, she'd know what to do.

"Do you really think we've been gone for six months?" I asked. Charlie shrugged and kicked a small rock.

"I don't know. It doesn't feel like it but at the same time I feel like we've been here for years. Like Bob said, time is different here. I know it sounds weird to hear it out loud, but when you think about how long we've been here, what do you think?" He said.

"It's like this is our life now," I answered. "It's like I don't know anything other than this. I've forgotten what it's like to sleep for more than a few hours at a time or close my eyes without the images of death. I'm beginning to forget the voices of those I love. I'm forgetting what my little brother looks like. I don't even remember what I look like, and I doubt I'll recognize myself if we ever get out of here." I ranted, not noticed the Arai's thoughts influencing me. "It's like I'm becoming a whole new person."

I nodded in agreement. We had changed so much in the past months. Charlie has become my only source of humanity, of comfort, of happiness. Since we arrived, he has never been out of my sight unless he was out with Bob. I couldn't stand to even think about life without Charlie. Without him, I wouldn't be able to get up after each nightmare. The voices of the Arai would take me over and the curse would become the death of me. Without Charlie, I may have given up long ago. But I promised my family I would come home. I had to. But if Charlie wasn't getting out, then neither was I. I was not going to leave Charlie behind. If he died while we were in here-gods forbid the thought- I would carry him out. I would find the physician's cure that saved his father and I would do whatever it took to keep him alive and to get him out of here. When my parents reached the elevator, Bob and Damasen held the button so they could escape. But I'd sent them ahead. Just in case. If there was a button, or anything that meant somebody had to stay behind, I had to make sure it was me. I would fight until he was safe, until everybody I loved was safe. If that meant staying here, then so be it.

 _You will never leave_

"Hey, let's keep going," Charlie said softly. He took my hand and lead me away.

I was beginning to realize just how much my dad loved my mom.

We found a small pack of Empousa to follow. They sounded like a stereotype high school girl but if you listened closely, you'd notice that instead of boys they liked, they were talking about ripping mortal's insides out. Charlie and I were quiet for the most part. Just in case, we didn't want them to hear us.

We both snapped to attention when we heard the vampires scream. They sounded scared, which scared us. Two giant creatures I didn't recognize jumped out from behind the rocks and began tearing the empousa apart limb by limb. They screamed in agony and pain as they died to the point that Charlie and I covered our ears.

"I've never really felt bad for a monster before…" Charlie muttered. We should have just run in the opposite direction. We should have ran far far away, but we didn't. Maybe because we're idiots, or maybe because that was our only lead to get out of here. We crept backwards and watched, hoping it would end soon. In the end, there was nothing left but blood. When monsters killed each other they usually aren't using Greek metals like our weapons were made of, so they didn't burst into golden dust. Much more disturbing.

"Titan," one of the creatures spoke. They were covered in scales but somehow looked more like giant makers than reptiles. Where their gums should be where large bone plates stained red with blood. They had no lips, nothing to hide their saw blade-like teeth.

"Did it just say titan? Like Bob?" Charlie asked.

My eyes widened and I pulled him backwards. "No, Charlie. Titan like _you_!" I whisper yelled.

"Oh, shit!"

This is when we began to run. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the creatures were chasing us. They were faster than we were. Quickly, the creatures had caught up. Charlie raised his sword and we stood back to back as they circled us.

"You, small titan." They only acknowledged Charlie. "Come with."

Charlie tilted his head in confusion. "Uh, what?"

"Come," the monsters repeated. They didn't sound like they were threatening him.

"Uh, sorry I'm busy. But you go ahead," Charlie squeaked.

"You come!" The both sprang forward, surprising us both. One of them dug its long teeth into Charlie's shoulder and dragged him forward. He screamed in pain and I jumped up.

"CHARLIE!"

While one monster trotted away with Charlie in its mouth, the other attacked me. I couldn't pay attention to the fight. I could hear Charlie screaming. I swung at the monster and ran after Charlie but it turned around and scraped its claws across my back. I could feel the three individual claws ripping my skin open. I dropped to my knees but kept fighting.

"JASE!" Charlie never stopped yelling. I could hear the pain in his voice.

I was frantically trying to get away from my attacker to get to him, but I wasn't trying to protect myself because I was too busy trying to get to Charlie. I glanced back up and noticed the beast's clawed hand coming down on my head. I weakly raised my sword but I caught the attack too late, the pain from my back clouded my mind.

"JASON!" Charlie's voice faded as I lost consciousness.

No, I couldn't black out! I needed to stay awake! Who knows where they could take Charlie and what they could do to him while I was unconscious or dead or whatever it was going to do to me.

 _You can't save him_


	64. Mirror Mirror on The Aall (Outside POV)

Percy and Annabeth wanted to dismiss Casey's outburst as a bad dream. But the threat was too much to just ignore.

"How could Casey have had a dream like that?" Percy asked. They were all back in the big house again. Casey was curled up in Annabeth's lap under the blanket, choosing to behave more like a child than the trained demigod she was.

"It wasn't a dream," Casey insisted.

Mr. D huffed and crossed his arm lazily. "Hypnos unblocked his ability."

"So Casey could have received a message from when Hypnos blocked his abilities, and it only went though now because he unblocked them!" Annabeth said.

"No!" Casey stood up, taking the blanket with her. "It wasn't a dream, or a message! He interacted with me. I lifted my sword and he raised his hands. He looked just as surprised to me as I was to see him!"

Annabeth stood slowly and took Casey's hand. "Casey, Nico and Hades both felt him die."

"He could have come back! He could have been revived! Nico's powers told you he died but they couldn't tell you if he came back. For all we know his heart could have stopped for like a second and come back! He _did_ say it was different than usual!"

Nobody said anything. They didn't want to burst her bubble. If Casey wanted to believe that her brother was alive, nobody could stop her. Nobody wanted to.

"We'll up security at the border and send out scouts. I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do with such little information," Chiron finally spoke. Casey's eyes were wild as she glared at the centaur and ran from the big house.

Nate was waiting outside. As soon as Casey slammed the door behind him he jumped up. "CJ! What's going on in there?" he asked.

"I saw Jase."

"What?! Where? When? How?"

"In my mirror, right after you left the cabin. I don't know how."

Nate had to jog to keep up with Casey's fast pace. He followed her up the stairs to the Poseidon cabin. She looked too angry to disagree with, but Nate couldn't help but doubt her.

"Right there," Casey said, pointing at the perfectly normal mirror in front of the bed. Her sword was still in the middle of the floor with the photo she had dropped. Nate didn't say anything.

"I know I saw him! I was just talking to myself, and he said something. I saw him in the mirror, and I saw Tartarus. Charlie was laying down behind him, I don't know if he was alive or not. Jase warned me. He said that the cyclops were coming and that it was a trap and Nyx let us go on purpose. I wasn't dreaming, it was an actual vision! I don't know how, but I know what I saw." She looked towards Nate expectantly.

Nate knew how impossible what she had seen was real. But as he stared at her, he noticed the desperosity in her eyes. She wasn't angry at the world or at her brother, she was angry with herself. She needed this to be real. But nobody believed her. They all just said she was dreaming and pushed her aside as if she didn't matter. Nate took a deep breath. He stepped forward and took Casey's hands in front of him.

"I believe you," he said.

Casey nearly sobbed in relief. Nobody else had even considered that what she had seen had been real. But Nathan, Nathan was different. Nathan was everything, he was just-

She leaned forward and kissed him.

Nate's eyes were wide in shock. A few unintelligible sounds escaped his mouth. His hands were frozen in front of him. He licked his lips. "I like your chapstick," he finally said. His voice was at least three octaves higher, making it sound as if he'd been kicked in the nuts. Casey had her eyes clamped tightly shut in what Nate just hoped wasn't regret.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry? I've been trying to get up the guts to do that for months!" Nate went bright red as he realized what he'd said.

Casey opened her eyes. "You were?"

"Uh, I mean, I don't know...Sorry?"

Casey smiled. "Sorry? Why are you sorry?" she said softly. Her gaze fell. "Nate, I _am_ sorry. I can't do this right now."

His smile dropped. "Why not?" he tried not to sound like a toddler when he asked.

"There's a chance my brother is alive. After his warning, I just know it. I need to protect Camp. Chiron isn't going to do anything but increase security. I need to do something."

Nate wanted to tell her that Jase wasn't alive, and now was a perfectly fine time to start a relationship. He thought it was frustrating. But he didn't say anything about that, because that's what Casey wanted. Or well, didn't want.

"I know. That's ok," he said. Internally, he was screaming to run away and hide in shame. But instead, he smiled as he walked to the door of the cabin. He paused in the archway. "Where do we start?"

"What?" Casey asked, looking up.

"I'm sure you're going to come up with some far fetched dangerous plan to save Camp, and I'm going to help. So come get me when you know what we're going to do." He left the cabin with a triumphant smile. Casey Jackson had kissed him. She may not be ready a relationship, but she'd still kissed him. It didn't matter to Nathan how long it took for them to get to the bottom of what was happening, or how long it took to make sure Camp was safe. It didn't matter how many years and decades it took. Because Casey had kissed him. And nothing else mattered.


	65. Reaponses to your reviews!

Hey guys! I know this is an author note and authors notes suck but I wanted to tell y'all that I am so grateful for all of your comments! But I am not able to respond to them... or I just don't know how an am an idiot.

I love all of your suggestions!

A special shout out to Symphony Gray, whose comments brighten my day every time I read them. As for your situation, I would love to give you advice but I can't find your user profile so I can't message you, so if you'd like to send me a message I would love to try to help out best I can!

Thank you all for commenting! I'll update another chapter this week since I added an author note.


	66. Comicon (Welcome to Spokane!)

Hi lovely readers! I'm so sorry you didn't get your update (or the second update I said I'd give you...) I'm working at Lilac City Comicon this weekend so I'm pretty busy this weekend in my booth and I have decided that I don't want to pay $80 (Yes, 80 freaking dollars) for exhibitor's wifi. The next update will either be Sunday night or at some point on Monday. Thank you so much for reading!

I'm still open to suggestions so if you have any ideas or things you want to see feel free to comment! I'm also thinking about publishing another story of PJA headcanons/mortals meet. Please comment if you'd be interested or if you have any ideas for that.

ALSO, happy pride month! I hope that no matter what sexuality or gender you are, whether straight or otherwise, that you are comfortable in your own skin and accepted in your life. If not, I shall adopt you and I am now your parent. Have a great weekend!


	67. On The Trail (tartarus POV)

I woke up with a throbbing headache. I hadn't had any dreams.

 _You're already living your worst nightmare_

Charlie. I jumped up, wincing slightly at the pain in my back. I spun around wildly. There was nothing but jagged rocks.

"No, no, no, no. Charlie? Charlie!" There was no answer. My voice echoed. "CHARLIE!" I didn't care if I was attracting monsters by yelling. There was no trace of Charlie.

 _He's already dead_

My breathing got short and frantic and I found it hard to breathe. It felt like the world was spinning. My vision became blurry. I heard myself mutter incoherently but I didn't recognize saying anything. I knew I was having a panic attack, but I didn't think about doing anything to stop it. I was alone. In Tartarus.

 _You will never leave._

Not without Charlie I wouldn't. I focused on something else. I knew it doesn't sound like it would help, but I focused on my physical pain instead of thinking about Charlie. I needed to break out of this before I could do anything. So I began taking deep breaths and did math in my head. I counted the number of places I was feeling pain and multiplied that by the level of how painful it was, then divided that by how many monsters had attacked us, then I used that to find the percentage of time we'd spent in tartarus being attacked by monsters.

72%. The rest of the time we spent at Damasen's cabin and walking and sleeping. After my sad math breakthrough, I stood up. My mom taught me the technique to use math to cope with anxiety. When I found myself getting uncontrollably nervous to the point of a panic attack, I would find a math problem and work on it. By the time I was done, my mind had gotten too focused on the math to freak out about the reason I was panicking.

I started jogging in the direction Charlie had been taken. In my panic, I hadn't noticed that Charlie had left a trail. Not the kind of trail I would have preferred him to leave.

It was blood. Charlie had been viciously bitten in the shoulder and the beast's hooked talons and become stuck in his body so it could drag him away. I hoped he still had Damasen's herbs.

I jogged until I was too exhausted, then slowed a walk. I was not going to sleep until I found him.

 _Then you're never sleeping again._

I imagined myself walking endlessly, never finding what I was searching for. I'd become just another soul stuck here forever. I'd never stop looking.

Then, the trail ended.

 _He's dead_

There we no more blood, which I hoped was a good thing. But that also meant I had no trail to follow.

A few feet away I noticed a strange looking rock and went to investigate. As I got closer I noticed it wasn't a rock at all. It was a homemade Drakon pelt loafer. I picked up Charlie's shoe and kept going.

I walked for hours. I didn't have any plan of stopping. My thoughts became worse and worse until I had nearly lost hope. There was nothing to make me believe that Charlie was alive. I saw how those monsters tore apart the empousa, what hope did Charlie have?

 _He probably died in the same way_

 _There is no reason for them to keep him alive_.

 _You know he is dead_

 _Just give up_

I kept walking. There was no proof he was dead. He couldn't have left a trail if he was dead, so I knew he was alive when they took off with him. And when they first saw us, they treated him like a child, not like a meal. Maybe there was a reason they took him.

 _Yeah, to eat him._

 _They probably killed him when they arrived to their destination_

Which was where? Where would these monsters possibly be going with Charlie?

 _The question is not where they went 'with Charlie,' he was just food for the journey._

If that was true, then the monsters were heading to the crack. So if I lost their trail, I could just find another monster to follow until I found them.

 _You won't find him alive._

But I wasn't going to stop. I promised I was never going to leave him and I wasn't going to break that promise. It was an oath to keep with the final breath, and I don't care how many breaths away that was if it meant finding him alive.


	68. The power of love (Tartarus POV)

"DINNER!" Something screeched. Instinctively, I raised my dagger and spun around towards the creature. It was the small shy demon from Nyx's mansion.

"Woah woah woah, I'm your mom's delivery man, remember? You don't want to kill me!" I promised.

The demon licked its lips. "I am the goddess of betrayal. I don't care if you work for my mother. I'm hungry."

Oh, well. I guess that was a good enough reason to eat me.

"How did you find me?" I asked. We circled each other as we talked.

"You have a secret. A secret is a form of betrayal. I am the goddess of betrayal, and there aren't many secrets for me to find in Tartarus."

 _Nyx did not throw you into Tartarus. You ruined you own life, not Night._

My secret.

 _And now Charlie will die because you didn't tell him. He will die alone at the hands of the Aeternae._

The Aeternae? That was the name of the creatures that had taken Charlie? Wait, if the Arai knew that then they weren't just leaving voices in my head. That mean they actually were in my head. I thought they influenced my own dark thoughts, but I didn't know the name of the monsters that took Charlie. The voices in my head did. The Arai were _literally_ in my head. Not just their curse. The beginnings of another panic attack began to take hold, but another problem revealed itself just in time.

"Now, I shall eat your betrayal!" The goddess lunged forward and I side stepped. I wasn't powerful enough to defeat a goddess. Even if she _was_ an evil minor god that nobody even knew about.

"But it's not a secret! Other people know!" I protested. My parents were there, Casey was there. They knew.

The demon smiled wickedly. "There's another secret. A secret that nobody knows. A juicy delicious secret you haven't even acknowledged." She licked her lips again. Another secret? I didn't have any other secrets. Did I?

 _Nobody will ever know why you jumped, Jason_

Why I jumped. I jumped because of Charlie, because he was falling.

 _That's not why. Not the whole reason. The reason you jumped is never going to leave you, especially after Charlie Valdez is dead._

 _You will never be able to forget_

 _You will be here forever_

"It was because of Charlie, that was my reason! It's not a secret!" I yelled. The demon reached for me so I slashed at her with my sword. I nearly tripped when my sword sliced cleanly through her. There was a gaping hole in her side from my sword but it didn't stop her. What looked like black vines grew and tightly wound themselves around the wound with a sickening squirting blood sound. Soon enough, she looked just as ugly as she normally did

"Your secret is delicious, I shall feast on it tonight," she hissed, growing closer.

She just had to know my secret, then it wouldn't be a secret and she couldn't eat it. But I didn't understand.

 _Why are you in this situation? Why have you killed yourself?_

The Arai sounded more sarcastic than usual. Guess they inherited a bit of my own personality when they broke into my mind. But their questions got my thinking. Why _am_ I here now? To find Charlie. But why did I need to find Charlie so badly?

The demon goddess raised her hand and I felt myself growing tired. It was a feeling I can only describe as being attacked by a dementor. But instead of happiness, she was taking my life.

"Because I love him!" I confessed. Her hand was still raised, but the pain stopped. It had worked. She hissed in anger and tried again but it didn't work. "I jumped because I love Charlie, and I wasn't going to let him fall in here by himself."

The goddess had gone quiet. She stared at me strangely.

"I love him," I whispered. Charlie and I had been stuck here together for more than six months and there hadn't been a moment that I had doubted this. But I had never said aloud. Or even in my head, just to myself.

The goddess began hissing hungrily as she faded away. She clawed at me, only landing me insignificant cut on my arm before she was gone.


	69. Here come da Po-Po (Outside POV)

After Casey's vision, the Jacksons' trip home had been postponed. But after a few days, Annabeth decided it was time. School was about to start and she didn't want her kids to miss out on their education.

"Mom, we have to stay here and protect the camp. We got a warning, why aren't we taking it seriously?" Casey asked in anger. She didn't want to leave Camp yet, there was so much she still needed to do.

"We are. Chiron has raised security. There's nothing else we can do. For now, it's important for us to get our family back to normal," Annabeth said.

"There is no _back to normal_! Jase is gone, Mom! Did you forget what happened"

Annabeth grabbed Casey wrist tightly. "Casey, I have not forgotten. I will never forget what happened. But that does not mean that I will let the rest of my family fall apart."

Casey crossed her arms and sunk back into her seat. Percy got Oscar into his carseat while Annabeth buckled in Adora. Adora didn't look very excited to go home either. Nobody in the car was happy about it. Percy hadn't said a word since they'd packed everything up. He didn't speak the entire ride home either unless he was asked a direct question.

"Are we going home?" Adora asked. She still hadn't cheered up since being told about Jase's death a few weeks earlier. She didn't want to believe that Jase was dead, but a belief like that was difficult when the entire world disagreed. Even Casey had began to grow doubtful.

"Yeah, we're going home. You've got school starting this week," Annabeth answered simply. Casey groaned again and dramatically smashed her head into the back of the seat.

There were two police officers waiting for them at the house. After Jase had disappeared, Percy and Annabeth had to call the police and tell them he was missing so the mortals wouldn't get suspicious. Now the authorities were constantly on their tails trying to figure out what happened. Annabeth said Jase went missing with another boy in Greece on a family trip. The police suspected they'd been kidnapped and wanted to interview the family further. Casey wanted to punch them in the face.

As they unloaded the car, Annabeth went to talk to the police. "I don't think it would be best for you to interview them now," she said.

"It has been six months, has it not? We thought we'd wait, but if we want to continue our investigation we need to talk to your children, the ones that were with him when he actually went missing," one of the officers told her.

"We had his funeral a few days ago. The memories are still fresh. Is there any chance you could come back another day?" Annabeth asked mournfully.

The cops exchanged a glance. "I'm afraid not."

Annabeth sighed and nodded for them to come inside. Casey ran past them into her room and slammed the door. She wondered what would happen if she just told the cops the truth. Would they send her to a mental asylum, or maybe just brush her off as a traumatized child? Casey had a few minutes to throw her suitcase onto the bed and stare out the window before Annabeth called her down.

"What?" Casey replied curtly.

Annabeth took her hand and gently pulled her onto the couch. "Honey, these officers need to ask you a few questions about Jase."

Casey sighed and leaned into the cushions, wishing she could disappear into the plush. "Fine. But make it quick. I still need to do my summer homework." The officers glanced at each other again and pulled out notepads. They sat on the loveseat across from Annabeth and Casey.

"I'm sorry we have to do this. Can you tell us what happened when your brother first went missing? When did you first notice he was gone?"

Percy and Annabeth made a cover story and the entire family had had to memorize it. Casey hated the story. "We were all hiking around the canyons in Greece. Oscar and Adora stayed at the hotel with our uncle, so it was just Jase and I, our cousins, and some friends. We decided to explore one of the caves that was there. We all went off to explore different parts of the caves and when we all met back up an hour latr, Jase and Charlie were gone. We looked for hours and called the police. We didn't find either of them," Casey said quietly.

The cops paused before asking another question. "And would you say Jason was experienced when it came to things like exploring the caves?"

Casey shrugged, causing her to sink further away. "More than the rest of us. Jase takes survival training classes at Camp, but Charlie isn't good with that sort of thing."

The cops took quick note of this as if it gave them an idea. "Was there anybody else in the area when this happened?"

"A couple other hikers that called the police. Lots of wild animals, but we had bear spray and us talking kept them away. " Casey didn't think this would make her emotional but her face was turning a bright red.

"Did you hear one of the boys talking to anybody else while you were in or outside of the cave, somebody besides the kids in you group?"

"Why?" Casey snapped.

The officer shuffled awkwardly. "We're just covering all of our bases. We need to make sure there was nobody else in the area that could have taken the boys."

Casey tried not to think about how many monsters were in Tartarus as Charlie and Jase fell. The beasts could probably smell the demigods before they even hit the bottom. "There was nobody there."

The cop flipped a page over in his notepad. He didn't get a chance to speak because Annabeth sharply butted in, "is this really necessary? That's all we know. Now, please, leave and let my family to recover."

The officers nodded quickly and left the home. "If there's anything you remember or if you have any questions, feel free to ask," they said before the door closed behind them. Annabeth let the police department's card fall to the wastebasket.

"I'm going to my room," Casey said. She ran upstairs, leaving her parents behind to wonder what was going to happen next.

"Perc, what are we going to do?" Annabeth asked. Percy pulled her close and let her bury her face in his chest.

"We move on. The best we can. Demigods pass away all the time, it's just a part of life. We're lucky we've lived this long. We've still got three amazing kids and they need us right now. I know it hurts, gods knows I do. But in the end, Jase knew the consequences, and he chose that it would be worth it. I did the same for you, we just were luckier than he was," Percy said.

"But why? Jason survived for six months, why did he die now?" Annabeth cried. "It shouldn't be luck! Jase was raised better than us, he was more trained and more loved; he should have survived!"

Percy shook his head. "I don't know," he whispered. "I don't know."


	70. A Trick for a Trick (Tartarus POV)

I'd literally defeated a goddess with the power of love. Well, kind of. I would have found the situation funny if Charlie was there.

 _Love only means something if it's alive._

The cut my left arm was bleeding but it wasn't too deep so it should be fine if I wrapped it up. But I didn't want to take my shirt off, so I didn't have anything to wrap it up with. Instead, I wrapped my other hand around it to keep pressure. As long as I could fight, I would be fine. Well, could be.

 _You'll never be fine._

Charlie hadn't left anything else for me to use as a trail so I kept going in the direction of the last object he'd sent. I was carrying his shoe, but it was torn nearly in half. I must have been hallucinating because it came to the point where I was seeing what looked like winged shoes climbing down the crevices between cliffs.

I didn't think about how hungry or exhausted I was. I couldn't. The only thing on my mind was Charlie. Part of me knew I was no good to him if I killed myself by not stopping for a break, but I ignored that part.

 _He's already dead. Just give up_

It had been at least a day, maybe three. Maybe more. I hadn't eaten, I hadn't slept, I had barely slowed my pace. I didn't even know where the River Phaethon was. I had lost track long ago.

I froze when I heard the familiar hissing of monsters. I turned my ear towards the sound and listened closely as I crept up to the small camp and hid behind a nearby rock.

"You a young one, ain't you? Don't think I ever seen no titan so small," the voice was strange. It was nearly impossible to understand. I peeked my head over to the rock to get a better look.

Without my glasses, I couldn't see much. But I saw Charlie. He was wedged between the two monsters. As the monsters spoke, he laughed along nervously. The were against a rock wall so there was no visible way of him escaping. His backpack and sword were on the other side of the monster to his right. I almost laughed in relief as I told the Arai to suck it.

 _The aeternae are fierce beasts. He will be dead within minutes_

Charlie had one hand pressed to the wound on his shoulder. It wasn't bleeding that I could tell, but then again I couldn't see clearly more than a foot in front of my face. His other arm was wrapped around his knees as he tried to make himself as small as possible. Of of the aeternae looked up suddenly, staring directly at me. I quickly ducked back behind the cover of my rock. The aeternae had strange plates in their mouth that looked a lot like the Crocotta we'd fought back in Florida.

"You smell human?" It asked.

I heard Charlie's breath catch. "Human?" He said. "No, I don't smell human, definitely not human, no human here!" He chuckled nervously again.

"Young titan is right. Not human," the other aeternae hissed. Charlie sighed in relief before the monster continued with, "Demigod."

Well, I'm screwed.

 _You're both going to die_

Someday, but not today. I jumped out from my hiding spot with my dagger raised, only to find that the aeternae were already upon me. I didn't even get one hit in before one slammed into my chest and knocked backwards. My broken rib pressed against my lungs and I lost my breath. My dagger slipped from my hand and fell far beyond reach. I smiled awkwardly at the beasts looming above me.

"Howdy," I greeted.

"Demigod smells familiar," one decided. Charlie stood shakily and I began to realize there was something else wrong with him. He looked sick.

"That, that's not a demigod," he stuttered.

I nearly rolled my eyes and stared at him. He only shrugged one shoulder in response, wincing slightly.

"It the one little titan was hunting!"

I raised an eyebrow at Charlie, who shrugged again. They thought Charlie was hunting me? The aeternae picked me up by the scruff of my neck, which hurt by the way, and turned around to face Charlie.

"He is captured, you can eat him now," they announced proudly.

Charlie looked mortified. "What?" he asked quickly.

"First kill is important for young titan," came the response. "This demigod is perfect. It is weak, easy to kill."

 _You are weak_

 _Too weak to save your family_

 _Too weak to save him_

Charlie furrowed his eyebrows and glared. "I don't know about that," he defended. He met my eyes and we had a silent conversation. I was helpless, there was nothing I could do but distract. It was up to Charlie.

"Ok, then put him down. I want to do it myself," Charlie ordered, trying to sound confident. He sounded like a toddler.

"He will run."

"He will not," I interrupted. "I'm weak, remember? I can't run."

They stared at me and I shrugged. Most monsters were idiots, easy to fool. The aeternae were certainly one of those monsters. I mean seriously, they thought Charlie was a baby titan. Well, he kinda is but that's beside the point. So, the one with it's claws digging into my neck dropped me. I dusted myself off and stood, waiting for Charlie to make a move. He looked at me as if I was the director and he'd just forgotten his line.

"Well?"

Charlie lunged forward and grabbed his sword and without grace, ran straight towards me. I ducked out of the way and his sword impaled one of the aeternae behind me. The other gasped as it's brother died. I used this distraction to get my dagger and stabbed the other one in the back. It turned around as if all I had done was annoy it and raised a clawed hand. I rolled out of the way and took another jab at its foot. Charlie soon joined me, bumping his arm gently against mine.

"You ok?" I asked.

"Peachy," he replied. "What happened while I was gone?" The aeternae hissed and raised both its arms, giving us a chance to simultaneously run toward and hit it. Charlie used his sword to take a sensible chunk out of its armpit while I stabbed it in the chest.

"Well, I figured out that we've spent 73% of our time here fighting monsters. Also, I fought a goddess and found your shoe. It's ripped, by the way," I said as I side stepped to avoid a claw to the face.

"Dammit! I liked that shoe! And what do you mean you _fought a goddess_? Are you ok?" He whipped around and threw his sword with expert position, slicing off a third of the aeternae's arm.

"I'm fine, just a scratched arm! Really, it went better than you'd suspect." I swung my arm in a full circle, digging my dagger into the monster's neck while Charlie took off its head. Because he wasn't using a Greek metal, it didn't dissolve into dust. Dark red oozing blood splattered onto my face and clothes.

"Ew," I groaned. I wiped the blood from my eyes and walked over the corpse to reach Charlie. He dropped his sword and wrapped his arms around my neck.

"Charlie," I breathed his name as I held him tight to my chest. "I'm so sorry," I apologized.

"Gods, Jase, I was so worried!" He pulled away to look me over.

" _You_ were worried? I wasn't the one that got kidnapped!"

He laughed, genuine this time. It was infectious. Amidst the laughing, he kissed me. I cupped my hand around the back of his head and deepened the kiss.

"Are you ok?" I asked, my lips hovering over his.

"Your breath smells like Tartarus," he responded. I moved to pull away but he pulled me closer. "Yes, I'm ok. I missed you."

I held his face in my hands and wiped away the blood and dirt with my thumbs, only smudging it more. He smiled and held my wrists. He suddenly winced in pain and bent over, clutching his shoulder.

My smiled faded and I held him upright. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I think their bite is poisonous," he explained weakly.

So sorry I haven't updated in bit... Life's been kind of hectic and crazy. My mom was just taken to the psych ward for threatened my dad (who moved out a few months ago) with suicide. I'm kind of in a strange situation right now but I'm going to try to update as I usually do. I hope all of you have an absolutely amazing day because you deserve it so much.


	71. First day of school (Outside POV)

The Jackson household was quiet that morning. It was the first day of school, but Jase wasn't up making pancakes like every other year. There was cereal. Annabeth had tried to make pancakes but nobody wanted the reminder. Not that anybody had actually remembered that they were out of pancake mix anyway.

A knock on the door echoed through the house. Percy was helping Adora get ready for school and Annabeth was feeding Oscar, so Casey answered the door. The police officer at the door had already taken off his hat and placed it over his chest in a sign of remorse. Casey thought it was a sorry way to apologize for something like this. Jase had done so much in his life; he meant so much more than a simple hat over this mortal's heart.

"What do you want," she asked dryly.

"Good morning Ms. Jackson, are your parents available?" The officer politely tipped his head.

Casey scowled. "No, they're not. But I don't think they need you to come here and remind them of what happened to my brother. We know you don't have any leads, you don't need to come here every week and tell us. So maybe think about _that_ you bigoted twat!" And with that, she slammed the door in his face. She'd had enough of police officers after they'd interrogated her a few weeks earlier.

"Casey, was somebody at the door?" Annabeth asked as she walked down the stairs with Oscar.

"Just another crummy mortal policeman."

Annabeth sighed and gave her daughter a warning glance before re-opening the door. "I'm sorry," she said and stepped aside to let the shocked man in. "Please, come inside."

"I'm sorry to bother you and your family, mam'."

"It's really no problem. Now please, what is it? We're quite busy today," Annabeth tried to sound as polite as she could without telling the officer to hurry the fuck up and get out of her house.

"We know it's the first day of school, and our department is offering to position an officer at the school if it would make your children feel more comfortable," he said.

Annabeth glanced back at Casey. "No, thank you. I think that at this point having an officer there will just be more of a reminder. It might be time I try and at least let my kids go back to a semi-normal life. But thank you for the offer," Annabeth turned the offer down. The policeman gave her an almost suspicious look and nodded respectfully.

"As you wish. If you change your mind, feel free to call." He slipped another card into her hand. The family already had many of these cards lying around the house-mostly in garbage cans. Annabeth closed the door, then immediately turned and hugged Casey.

"I'm sorry, honey."

"It's ok Mom, not your fault they keep coming." Casey pulled away from the hug and shrugged her backpack on. "I'm headed to school."

Annabeth frowned. "Walking? No, I'll give you a ride. Your father can get the littles ready by himself." She left no room for argument. Casey wanted to roll her eyes and act reluctant to go, but she was happy. Her parents hadn't really made any alone time to spend with her since _it_ happened.

"Did you get your summer homework done?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah."

"How are you and Nathan?" Annabeth said with a knowing smile.

Casey almost reacted in anger, but she didn't know why. She felt defensive. But instead, she involuntarily smiled. "What do you mean?"

"Casey, I'm your mother. I'm not clueless. Katie is also one of my best friends, she tends to tell me things like when her son is head over heels for my daughter."

Casey blushed and fiddled with her fingers. "I told him I wasn't ready for a relationship right now," she said.

"I understand. And what did Nathan say to this?"

Casey blush deepened and she bit the inside of her cheek. "He said he understood. He was really nice about it."

"That's good. Want to stop for coffee before I drop you off?" Annabeth offered. That's another thing Percy and Annabeth did as parents. When one of their children was particularly upset, they'd bring them out for coffee or hot chocolate; just them. It was hard to make time for each individual child when you had four kids, so it didn't happen all that often.

"Sure," Casey responded. Annabeth smiled warmly and patted Casey's hand.

When they arrived at the small coffee joint, Annabeth ordered a green tea and Casey ordered a large coffee. Annabeth wasn't sure about all that caffeine, but she let Casey get it anyway. They sat at one of the tables on the small outdoor patio.

"Are we going to have a funeral? Like one in the mortal world that all his other friends can attend? And Sally and Paul and Estelle, I'm sure they'd want to go too." Casey mumbled. She hated talking about Jase's death so casually but her family, everybody in her life, had come to accept that he was dead.

"Casey, let's not talk about that. If we only talk about the negative, then we will never remember the positive," Annabeth urged.

Casey huffed and nodded. "Yeah, ok. What kind of positive things are there?"

Annabeth smiled. "You are officially becoming a high schooler today. That means you can start drivers ed. Your father and I signed you up already, class starts next week."

Casey's eyes widened. She'd been waiting to drive since she was a little girl. "Seriously? Mom, thank you!" She rushed forward and gave her mom a hug. Annabeth laughed and rubbed her back. "Make sure to brag to your sister. Adora has been whining all week that she has to wait," Annabeth joked. Casey couldn't wait to be the one to brag. Because Jase was the oldest, he always got to do things first.

"Now, we should probably get you to school. Try to make some friends, reach out."

Casey stopped smiling as soon as she got to school. Nobody paid her much mind, until they found out who she was.

"Casey!" Somebody called. Casey turned, not sure what to expect. One of Jase's school friends, Jared, was waving her towards him. She turned and pretended not to notice. Jase was supposed to be the one to show her around on her first day of high school. She didn't need his friends to remind her that he couldn't. School had started about 2 months ago, but the Jacksons started late this year. Everybody else knew where they were going, so nobody stopped to help Casey.

"Casey! God, you're fast," Jared huffed. "Hey, where's Jase? I heard on the news that-"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh," Jared deflated a bit. "Anyway, uh, need help finding your class?"

"I got it." In fact, Casey did not have it. She had no idea where she was going.

"Ok, cool. Hey, if you want somewhere to sit at lunch, we got room at our table?"

"No thanks."

"Uhh, ok… We're at the far corner of the room by the windows if you change your mind," Jared offered awkwardly. He stayed for a moment longer, then waved and bolted when Casey remained silent. If Jase were here, she wouldn't have had to be invited to sit there. All of his friends knew Casey by acquaintance. They'd met her a few times at sports events or when they came over to study.

Eventually, Casey found her class. She made her way to a seat in the back of the class seconds before the bell went off. The classroom was littered with sticky notes and little scraps of paper and _lots_ of books. In the front was a small podium and whiteboard. The teacher was short and quite stout. He reminded Casey of professor Flitwick from Harry Potter. He tapped his pencil sharply against his podium to get the class's attention.

"Good morning everybody! Today we will be going over paragraph structure in a synthesis essay with our table groups. But first, stay in your seats so I can take attendance," the teacher said. He had a high squeaky voice, a non-threatening voice. He began to call out the roll. Going down the list of names, he nearly skipped Casey.

"Carter Jackle, here. Casey Jackson, absent," he muttered past her name.

"Here," Casey called dully. The entire class turned around to look at her. They sat in a moment of shocked and rude silence. "What?" Casey snapped. They all shuffled anxiously back to their seats and strained to ignore her.

"Casey Jackson, _here_ ," the teacher said. "I'm Mr. Johnson, it's nice to meet you dear." Then he continued attendance. After he finished, he sent the students into their work groups. Casey didn't move and waited for him to hobble to her desk.

"It's nice to meet you Casey, I've heard a lot," Mr. Johnson said. He smiled politely and handed her a few papers and a workbook. "Since you did most of the classwork over the summer, I've managed to worm your workload into something a bit smaller. Hopefully that will help ease your stress when you're trying to catch up. At the moment we're going over paragraph structure, which you'll find on page 112 of your workbook. Don't bother with finding a group quite yet, I'd like you to spend this week taking your time to catch up and going over the course."

Casey was unsure what to say. She hoped all the teachers would be this polite. "Uh, thank you," she finally croaked.

"Of course. I'll be up front if you have any questions. Next week we'll get you back on track with the rest of the class."

((AN: Thanks for all the support, I really appreciete it. Also, I've been thinking about doing anther Percy Jackson Avengers fic, except actually finishing this one. Please comment if you like the idea or have any suggestions. Thank you!)


	72. Followed (Tartarus)

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE**

"Why didn't you mention this when I asked if you were ok?!" I shouted.

"We had more pressing matters!" he shouted back. I rolled my eyes and pulled his hand away so I could look at the wound. It was a murky greenish brownish color and seemed to bubble at the surface. Definitely poison, but not one I'd ever seen before. I grabbed Damasen's backpack and dug through it, bringing out the small bundle of herbs we had left. I should have asked Damasen what they were called, I'm getting sick of just calling them herbs.

Charlie hissed in pain and motioned towards the ones on the outside of the bundle. "You'll need two of those. But first, go find two rocks so you can crush them into a paste."

I rushed off to get the supplies. It wasn't very hard to find rocks in Tartarus, so I only had to travel about five feet. A treacherous journey, I know.

 _Not as treacherous as your face._

"Ok, now what?"

"C'mon Jack, you're smart, figure it out," he groaned.

I rolled my eyes and swept my hand over the bundle. "Jack?" I asked, trying to distract him.

"I'm gettin' tired of calling you Jackson every time you screw up," he said, only half sarcastic. I huffed in moch annoyance and got back to finding all the things he needed. We fell into a silence.

"Two of those purple stemmed ones," he finally said. I looked through the limited herbs and frowned.

"There's only one with a purple stem."

Charlie sighed, muttered a few mortal curses under his breath. "Fuck it, we're doing this anyway. Get a few of those yellowy leafy things," he said. Glad to knew he knew what he was talking about. I grabbed some of the _yellowy leafy things_ and placed them on the rock with the purple stemmed one. "That should be good," Charlie approved. "Now crush them up and add some lava to make a paste."

I glanced around. "No idea where the River Phaethon is," I confessed.

"You've got to be shitting me. I guess we'll have to make this work. Ok, so crush the plants anyway. I don't know how this will work but I think we have to try," he tried to sound casual but I could tell he was in pain. His skin had turned an ashy grey and his eyes were sunken in.

I balanced one of the rocks in my lap and began smashing the Hades out of the plants on top of it. It wasn't much of a paste when I was done; more of a powder. I cupped it carefully in my hand and Charlie exposed the wound so I could sprinkle it over the poisoned area. Charlie closed his eyes but showed no other sign that it hurt.

 _He won't live through this._

With his shoulder as an excuse to stop, we took a break. Charlie slept first, like usual. He laid his head on my lap and I ran my hand through his hair. This was becoming a routine by now. I ripped up the remainder of Charlie's ruined shoe and used the long straps to wrap up my arm. It worked better than any other bandage I'd tried. We'd have to use this stuff at Camp. After my arm was taken care of, I settled down to keep watch.

Every once in awhile a monster would wander by in the distance but nothing came close enough to cause alarm. Nothing much happened. As far as Tartarus went, it was almost peaceful. Almost. But it was never peaceful in Tartarus. My broken arm had begun to throb, begging for medical attention. Charlie and I had tried to set the bone back in place but it was healing wrong and every time I fought, I messed it up more. The whole arm around the elbow had become purple, as had my knuckles and the joints in my fingers.

 _It looks as just bad as it feels._

"Your turn," Charlie yawned after a while. We didn't switch positions but he turned over in my lap so he could keep watch.

"Next time I say we've been through worse, I mean this," I said, interrupting what little silence we had. Looking to my down at him reminded me of how dire our situation was. Purple bags grew like roots under Charlie's eyes. His face was covered in an uncomfortable looking layer of dirt, blood, and sweat. A long cut was beginning to scar on his forehead. Dried blood remained plastered onto his chin and around his nose, despite my efforts to clean him up. His hair no longer looked soft and curly and his almond eyes were missing their old sparkle. He looked broken, and not just because of the look in his eyes. He was using his new drakon bone sword as a stilt to keep the pressure of his swelled and bruised ankle. We both knew it was broken, but neither of us wanted to admit it. His previously clear skin was littered with bruises and gashes and his clothes were soaked with blood and liquid fire.

 _Even if you did manage to get out, you would never look normal._

I knew I didn't look much better. My Camp shirt was torn at the sleeve and there was a large rip at the bottom from the fall. Dameson had crudely tried to sew it back up but that had only lasted two days or so. My jeans were stuck to my legs with precipitation and blood. In other places they were torn, exposing few open wounds. The back of my shirt had been torn to shreds by the aeternae. Charlie's flannel was bound tightly around my chest to keep my ribs in place. My other arm was draped around Charlie so my hand rested on his chest. He rested gently against me and tried to sleep. We both knew he wouldn't.

 _Sleep is for the weak. You're weak._

As soon as I fell asleep, I was haunted with visions of Nyx ripping my family apart. Literally. I found myself, like in most dreams, helpless as I watched them die. Every time I had one of these dreams, Casey was screaming my name, begging me to help them. Sometimes she yelled at me for betraying them, for letting my family down as she died. I tried to protest, but after awhile I began to agree.

 _It's your fault_

I snapped awake with the vision of her bloody hand reaching towards me from her shredded corpse. Charlie rolled over to look at me and lifted a hand, tracing the lines of dirt on my chin. He didn't ask about it.

"We should get going. We need to find the River Phaethon," I said shakily. He nodded and got up. He looked a little better than he had before, but not much. I yawned, the foul taste of Tartarus filling my lungs.I rubbed my eyes and shook my head quickly, waking myself up.

"I heard some monsters talking while you were sleeping, I think we're getting close," Charlie said. Finally, some good news. He slung the backpack over his shoulders and took my hand.

 _Good news never lasts long in Tartarus._

I heard the group of monsters before they came into view. "Come on, idiots! We're almost there!" What looked to be a large female cyclops was in the lead. Two other cyclops trailed after her. They were all wearing faded blue coveralls, likely the type mechanics usually wore.

"Yes mother!" They yelped, falling into a clumsy line behind her.

"As soon as we get out we can track down that _McShizzle_ or whatever he is called, and the sooner you two quit bickering and start walking the sooner we can kill him!" she growled at her apparent kids.

"As if!" one of the empousa following it shrieked. "First we find Perseus. He's killed me three times now!" The one in the lead complained.

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the mention of my dad's name. I shrugged in response. My dad has killed a lot of monsters, how should I know which one this was? Charlie coughed, raising his fist to cover the sound. He still seemed sick, but he wasn't dead. I guess that was something.

 _He's going to die_

I huddled closer to him than usual as we walked. I'd nearly lost him once, I didn't want it to happen again.

"Jack," Charlie whispered. His voice was cracking. "I don't think we're the only ones following these guys." He pointed off to the right and I followed his finger, noticing a tall figure running alongside the rock wall near one of the cliffs.

"What is that?" I asked.

Charlie shrugged, then stopped walking."I don't know, but I think it's coming towards us!" he warned. His grip on my hand tightened significantly and he raised his dagger. I followed suit. The figure, which I recognized as a man, had a sword at his side but wasn't holding it up defensively.

He reached us and before we could speak he said, "You're not monsters!" He spoke a little too little too excitedly.

I raised an eyebrow. "We're not?" I snuck a quick glance towards the monsters up ahead, who were yet to notice us.

"Who are you?" Charlie challenged.

"Who are _you_?" The stranger returned.

"I asked first," Charlie childishly protested.

The man huffed but allowed us this victory. "My name is Quintus," he introduced.


	73. First day of school part 2 (outside)

**CHAPTER 20**

Regrettably, there were no open seats in the cafeteria by the time Casey got there. Students were scattered across the floor and in the corners of the room and a few by the trash cans if they were unlucky enough. Casey thought of joining them, but saw Jared waving from the other side of the room. The guy was persistent, Casey could say that for sure. She took a deep breath and walked over to the table.

There were a few people that Casey recognized. Kaitlin Reed was a girl on Jase's mathlete team, Harris Podelnyk was a friend of Jase's from the swimming team, and Asher Lauren was another friend of his. Then there was Jared, Jase's close friend since sixth grade. The last person at the table was Rose Underwood from Camp. What was she doing at Casey's school?

"Hi," Casey said shyly. The group parted to make a seat for her, sprouting different greetings as she sat down.

"So nice for you to join us, Jackson," Rose mocked jokingly.

"What are you doing here?" Casey asked in disbelief. "I thought you were still at Camp?"

Rose shrugged. "Mr. Brunner suggested I come here to keep an eye out. Plus, I gotta graduate somehow, right?" she said with a winked. Casey rolled her eyes and tried to resist a smile.

"So, how did you like your first day?" Asher asked.

Casey shrugged. "Pretty boring. Mr. Johnson seems cool though."

"Oh yeah! He's the best. He is Jase's favorite teacher," Harris blurted.

 _Is._ Casey went silent. Should she correct him? If she corrected Harris, that meant she'd be accepting Jase's death. And they wouldn't want to be friends with her after she told them their best friend was dead. So she said nothing. Casey went back to picking at her lunch. Nobody felt particularly hungry after that. Casey seemed to cast a dark cloud over the group, but it wasn't like they could kick her out. She was Jase's sister for God's sake! Plus, Rose was sending death glares to everybody who looked unsurely at her friend. Casey didn't participate much in the lunch conversation. Everybody continued on, pretending that Casey didn't look like they were making a plan to kill them. Part of her really did want to make friends, but she also really just wanted to mope and pout.

"So, I was thinking about doing another study group on Mondays like we did last year. What do you guys think?" Asher asked. Jared nodded in agreement as he sipped his bagged chocolate milk.

"Mathletes is on Monday," Kaitlin mentioned.

"So is swim meet," Harris added.

"Thursday?" Jared suggested The group mumbled their agreements and went back to their food.

"Where are we going to meet?" Kaitlin pointed out. They used to meet at Jase's house, but it really didn't seem like that was going to be an option anymore. Casey thought back to what her mom had said that morning about making friends. Annabeth wanted to her try to reach out? Fine.

"You can come to my place," she said dryly. Even Rose looked surprised at this suggestion.

"That's great!" Jared was the first one to speak, his cheeks slightly tinged. Rose gave him a suspicious look and squinted her eyes. Casey ignored it.

After lunch, school went by slowly. Most people avoided Casey because she looked like she would kill anybody that came near her. The few people that spoke to her were mostly Jase's old friends or people that heard rumors that she was Jase's sister and wanted to know what had happened. She politely glared at most people in the second group.

When the final bell rang, Casey pushed her way past everybody to get her things from her locker. Through the day, Casey had earned herself a reputation as somebody not to mess with. She was pushing the large glass doors to the school open when somebody stopped her. It was Ms. Peach, the school counselor. Casey had been avoiding her all day.

"Hi honey, I just wanted to reach out to you, introduce myself," she said.

Casey sighed, wishing she could just go home. "Cool. Bye," she cooly said.

Ms. Peach caught her gently by the arm as she left. "If you ever need somebody to talk to you, you can come to my office. It doesn't matter if you're in class, I'm always available if you'd like to speak or just need a quiet place to sit."

Casey forced a slightly sarcastic smile. "Thanks." At least now she had a free ticket out of class. She looked away from the shining smile Ms. Peach threw towards her and jogged out the doors. Jason would have been on his way to pick up Oscar and Adora, but Percy was going to pick them up now. Rose was outside leaning against her car, waiting for Casey.

"Jackson! Over here!" she called. Casey ducked her head to avoid stares as she ran to Rose's car and hopped in the passenger seat without saying a word.

"How was your first day of school, darling?" Rose asked.

"I want to go back to Camp," Casey responded dully. She wanted to help Nate finish their plan and protect the borders.

"So, not great?"

"No, Rose. Not great."


	74. THAT guy?

I choked on my own saliva, an embarrassing feat really. I coughed as I tried to recover myself and Charlie squinted at my reaction.

"No you're not," he argued confidentially.

Quintus looked surprised and thoughtful at the same time. "What makes you say that?" he asked. He looked different that when my mom had described him. His hair was long and grey, and a curly beard grew shamefully from his chin. Now, he was just an old man. A genius old man, but an old man nonetheless. He was a demigod son of Athena. My uncle, I guess.

"Because he's smart," Charlie excused, pointing at me.

"Daedalus," I reintroduced. Charlie's head whipped towards me in surprise and confusion, but he didn't question me. The look on "Quintus's" face confirmed my suspicion. He didn't say anything, only held his head in shame and sighed as I announced his real identity. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

Daedalus stared and us for a moment before sighing deeply (again) and giving up his cover. "Minos got what he wanted. I wanted to put him in Tartarus, so that's what he did to me," he explained. I had so many questions. I wondered if he knew that the laptop containing his work was down here, somewhere beneath the river of Lamentation. I doubted he'd want to know that, so I didn't mention it. Charlie pulled my hand and I looked up, noticing that the monsters were still moving and were almost out of sight by now.

"Come on!" I insisted. "We're following these monsters out of here."

While we walked, Daedalus told us his story. He even spoke about his time at Camp Half Blood. I had to keep myself from smiling as he mentioned my parents. He spoke so fondly of my mother, as if she were his hero and not the other way around.

"A very wise girl indeed…" he trailed off, looking wistfully into the distance as if he wished for nothing more than somebody to have an intelligent conversation with. I almost laughed at his unintentional pun. Wise girl. My dad would have laughed.

"So…" Charlie trailed off, trying to make small talk. "How'd you find out about the crack to the surface?" It was a strange question, especially if taken out of context.

Daedalus fidgeted guiltily, catching my attention. "The crack is not what you think," he said. He too a deep breath as if what he was about to admit would lead to dire consequences. "It's the Labyrinth."

TO BE CONTINUED…


	75. Socialize (outside)

That Thursday, Percy picked the gang of kids up in the family van. The group used to walk to the Jackson house but, as the Jackson's school friends found, Percy and Annabeth were much more protective of their kids now. When they got to the house, Annabeth was waiting outside with Oscar and Adora.

She smiled and kissed Percy on the cheek as he approached. "Welcome home. Hazel had the twins today, I told Frank we'd come up to visit tomorrow. Casey, would you like to come or go to school? I'm not sure if you have any quizzes or something you'd need to make up," Annabeth said.

"I'll come." Casey walked right past them and into the house.

"Come on inside, I made snacks," Annabeth motioned the rest of the group inside.

"I need to call Frank and Hazel! Omg, Annabeth they used to be little babies and now they have little babies!" Percy gushed.

Annabeth rolled their eyes. "This isn't the first time they've had a kid, you know."

"Yes but stiiillll!"

Annabeth handed Percy his son and took Adora's hand to lead her into the house. "I can't believe Casey invited people over," she said.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know, maybe she's just trying to keep things from changing. You know how she hates change. These kids used to come over all the time last year. Or maybe she's trying to make friends!"

Annabeth scoffed. "Casey, trying to make friends? Sure. Now, let's go inside and try to act like normal people."

This time, it was Percy's time to scoff, "Us, normal people? Sure." Annabeth laughed and punched his arm, which he then slung around her shoulders. Percy kissed Annabeth's temple and they finally went inside. Jared was sitting on the loveseat pigging out on the sandwiches Annabeth had made.

"You're the best Mrs. Jackson, please never change," he said through a mouth full of food. Casey rolled her eyes and sunk into the couch cushions, pulling out a book and ignoring everybody.

"So, what should we start with?" Asher asked.

The collectively groaned and shivered away from her. "Video games?" Harris suggested. Casey snorted, then hid her face behind her book.

"How about world history?" Jared suggested playfully. Asher nodded in agreement and dropped a notebook and stack of papers onto the table. Percy and Annabeth went to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Things went smoothly for most of the night. Casey even set down her book and helped the group study; they even shared a few laughs over the night and threw popcorn at each other. But of course, things couldn't be perfect.

Annabeth got a call. Not an Iris Message, a phone call. Casey dropped her popcorn with a concerned look. Percy also looked up and took a step towards his wife.

"Hello? Yes, this is her." Annabeth held a finger up towards Percy and glanced at Casey before stepping outside. The house was silent until she stepped inside with a solemn look.

"What happened?" Casey asked. Percy set his hand on her waist with a concerned expression.

Annabeth glanced at the mortals in the room with a sigh. They might as well know; this information would mean more to them than it would to the Jacksons. "The police have officially closed Jason's case," she said.

Jase's friends each took an audible gasp, simultaneously remembering their missing friend. Casey took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It's not like they would have found anything anyway," she spat. Rose stood up but she knew not to approach her friend.

"Casey!" Percy boomed, sending a pointed look towards her friends.

"It's true! We all know it! You and Mom have already given up on him, why shouldn't the rest of us? Hades himself said he's dead!"

Percy wanted to yell at his daughter. He wanted to tell her to go to her room as if she were a toddler all over again. But Casey was mourning, so Percy chided himself for responding to that with anger. His gaze softened.

"Come with me. Let's talk," he said. Casey was surprised by his calm demeanor. Percy had been so angry lately, so short tempered when it came to the kids. But if he could step up and be nice then so could Casey. She tossed her book to the side and stood up, marching after her father.

Percy lead her to Jase's room. Casey didn't understand why this conversation needed to take place in her brother's room but she was too overwhelmed to argue about it. Patting the mattress beside him, Percy sat down. His daughter crumpled into a heap beside him.

"Your mother and I have not given up on Jason. We won't give up on him until we 100% definitive proof that he's gone for good. Hades said there was something funny about the death, so we're not taking that as proof. We listened to you when you said you had that vision thing too. We aren't just going to pretend he never existed and move on," Percy explained.

"But then why aren't you doing anything?!" Casey exploded. "You act like his name is forbidden, but if you haven't given up then why don't we talk about him? Why aren't we out there looking, or interrogating monsters or something?"

Percy sighed and looked around the room. He picked the alarm clock off of the bedside table. "He's been gone for over six months now. The first time his alarm clock went off I had to come in here and turn it off. I had to wonder if we were ever going to have to clean out this room. Pack up all of his stuff into cardboard boxes. Unenroll him from school, cancel his insurance."

Casey felt her heart leap into her throat at the thought. "Then why haven't you?" she asked weakly.

Percy stood up and walked around, letting his fingers skim over the bookshelf and the closet door. "Because I still can't help but home hope that he's going to be back here someday. I have dreams at night where I'm sitting in bed and can hear Jase upstairs, banging his hip on the closet door and jumping around the room. I remember listening to your and his block tower falling down when you two were still little. He was so upset. He actually cried. I ran up the stairs so fast; I was worried that one of you had gotten hurt," he paused, taking a moment to gaze at a few scratches on the wall where the block tower had landed all those years ago.

"Did we? Get hurt, I mean."

Percy shook his head. "No, nothing like that. Jase was just upset that his tower had fallen. You two had spent hours working on that thing, you were so proud. You looked so freaked out when he started crying, so I pulled him aside. I explained to him why he didn't have to cry over it. Some things aren't worth crying over, I told him. There are days when you lose things, but that doesn't mean you have to cry. Because you can always rebuild, you can always move on."

"But I can't move on!" Casey insisted.

"That's exactly what Jase said. But I pointed out that you were already starting over. I said that sometimes you can pretend to move on so somebody else can. I didn't want him to make you upset. Telling him that may have been one of the worst things I've done to him. From then on, he never told you when he was upset. He always told you everything was fine, pretended he wasn't upset. I tried to convince him that wasn't what I meant, but he just smiled and said he knew," Percy said. He finally put the alarm clock down. "I don't want you and your siblings living in a world of memories. I want you kids to be able to move on eventually. Jase's friends don't know where is his or what happened. They can't understand exactly what's happening in our lives right now. But they're still reaching out, because that's what Jase would have done. They knew how he cared for you, they knew how he always covered up and pretended everything was fine when it came to you. Everybody knew how protective he was of you. Do you remember when you visited his highschool with your class last year and some random kid said something about your butt?"

Casey frowned. "What? No, that didn't happen," she said.

Percy smiled and shook his head. "Some guy said something stupid, then said he was going to try to get your number. Jase found out, nearly scared the guy half to death. Told him never to say another word about his sister. He was so protective of you. Everybody who knew him knew how much he loved you."

Casey was crying now. Just barely; strings of tears tracking down her cheeks and onto the floor in messy blotches. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked.

Percy hugged her close and kissed the top of her head, rocking slightly as if to cradle her. "Because you are so important, Casey. Nothing is going to happen to Jason Jackson's little sister, not as long as he can help it. He would fight Tartarus himself blindfolded and hands tied behind his back if it meant being able to come home to you. That vision you had, maybe it was him. Maybe he's still alive, trying to send a message to you because keeping you safe has always been what he did best. Don't be too hopeful, kiddo, but don't give up hope either."

Casey smiled and leaned into her dad's side. She looked around the room as well, taking in every little detail of it. The idea of it being all boxed up was haunting.


	76. The Labyrinth (Tartatus POV)

"The Labyrinth?" I asked, nearly tripping over my feet in surprise.

Daedalus looked down in shame. "I opened in, when I arrived in Tartarus. I wanted to escape, and I thought the Labyrinth could help me do that. I didn't know what would happen-,"

I cut him off by punching him in the face.

"Jase!" Charlie grabbed me by the waist to keep me from Daedalus, who was on the ground with his hand to his broken nose. "Jason, stop," Charlie whispered. He wasn't chastising me; he was warning me. I growled at the inventor and stood my ground, crossing my arms angrily to keep myself from lashing out. If the Labyrinth hadn't opened, Nyx and her army of cyclops never would have escaped. None of this would have happened. I would be teaching a sword fighting class for my group of campers, the same group I taught every year and the same group of kids Grover's daughter and I had traveled around the country to find and bring to camp. I'd be having lunch with my family at the pavilion, I'd be teaching Adora how to use the water to her advantage and having book club with the kids at Camp.

"Because of you, my parents were kidnapped! My family was torn apart and you _didn't know this would happen_? If it weren't for you, we wouldn't even be here in the first place!" I cocked my fist to hit him again but the action caused a stinging pain in my back where the Aeternae claws had raked across my skin. I hissed in pain and Charlie took me by the shoulders for support. He coughed and gripped me tighter, reminding me that he was still sick from the Aeterane's poison. For his sake, I chose to glare at Daedalus instead of attacking. "Let's keep moving," I growled. Charlie took my hand and pulled me back onto course. I tried not to let my anger take over but it was a lot harder than you'd think.

 _He's the reason you're here_

 _He's the reason your family is in danger_

I took a deep breath and began counting to a hundred. Charlie stood next to me, stealing glances at the old man behind us.

 _He's the reason Charlie is here._

I tightened my grip on Charlie's hand and tied not to draw my dagger. Charlie noticed the difference and stared at me until I made eye contact.

"Jase, what would you do to get out of here?" he asked softly.

 _Anything_

"I would not have done _that_. I would not have done anything if I knew this would happen. I would never endanger so many people," I told him.

"Jase, he _didn't_ know."

 _It doesn't matter, he still did it_

 _Look at him, he doesn't care_

 _Because of him, you-_

"Stop it," Charlie ordered.

My eyes drifted to the ground and I shook my head. "Stop what?" I responded sharply.

"The arai, they're in your head aren't they?" He spoke sternly.

"Does it matter?" I snapped.

 _He doesn't care_

"Yes."

 _He's lying_

I made a growling sound in the back of my throat, angered at the voices in my head. Charlie grabbed my wrists and kissed me in retaliation. I melted into the kiss, feeling my anger seep away. The voices subsided enough for me to take back control. Charlie pulled away and let his lips hover over mine with a small smile.

 _It wasn't real_

Well, it sure as Tartarus felt real.


	77. Social Part 2

Ruining the moment, Annabeth appeared in the doorway. "I got another call, and we have to get to Camp. Bring weapons and the spare med kit. Mortals are on their way home now," she said before racing from the room. Casey and Percy exchanged a look, then got off the bed, flipping the mattress over to get to the supply of weapons Jase kept stored there. Casey raced down the stairs with a duffle bag of weapons and grabbed the spare med kit.

Adora was sitting at the kitchen table with Annabeth kneeling in front of her. "We're coming home," Annabeth promised her. Adora was sniffling and grabbed her mom's sleeve. "But that's what Jasey said too! I don't want you to go," she cried.

A broken look crossed Annabeth's face. She was torn. Camp needed her, but so did her daughter. When she had kids, she promised that they would always come first. But there was an entire camp of kids in danger right now, and she couldn't bring Adora with them. Casey remembered her conversation with Percy. She softly pushed Annabeth aside and took Adora's hands.

"Adora, we're not going to die today. There's just a little issue we need to take care of, then we're going to get groceries and coming right home. Your job is to take care of Oscar, alright? Can you take care of Oscar?" Casey tried changing the subject. If Adora had a job to focus on she wouldn't worry so much. Adora nodded and stuck her thumb in her mouth; a nervous habit.

"Do you want us to pick anything up for you at the store?" Casey added.

Adora shook her head, then stopped and nodded. "Goldfish?"

Casey took out a pen wrote goldfish on her hand. "There, now I won't forget. See you soon, sis!" Casey said cheerfully. Adora smiled and jumped from the chair.

Annabeth turned to Casey. "I don't know how you did that, but thank you. The neighbor is coming over for awhile; I told them there was a family emergency that I didn't want the littles to get involved in." Once Adora was out of earshot and Percy had joined them she added, "Octavian got out, he's raising an army to attack Camp Half Blood. It was his plan all along. He already has an army, they helped him escape and steal Camp Jupiters weapons."

Casey could feel her blood rising, boiling in her brain so her ears got hot. Octavian had tricked her. He'd _used_ her to steal from Camp and get his army together. And now he knew Camp's setup. He knew they were wounded from their loss and that the newest members hadn't been trained yet. Casey had no doubt he'd be using this information against them. A sickening feeling filled her gut.

"Nate!" she yelped, jumping up and running around to gather the last of what they'd need.

"What about him?" Percy asked cautiously.

"We've been preparing for this! He's got traps set up along the boarder and some of the campers are on look-out detail. This is what Jase was warning us about! It has to be…" Annabeth and Percy exchanged a glance at their daughter's ramblings. They'd lecture her later on the dangers of running an operation like this but first they had to be grateful that she did.

Percy, per usual in life or death situations, took the wheel. He was a much more reckless driver, but he was fast. Nobody was even buckled in by the time they took off. Casey felt as if the G-force pressing against her would have made it impossible even if she did want to buckle up. The fifteen minute drive to Camp was reduced to seven minutes. When they arrived, they first saw a group of campers surrounded Thalia's tree to protect the golden fleece. There was a fight going on, but the battle was yet to pass the strawberry fields. Every once in awhile one of the enemy would step on a trap and go flying into the lake, just to be attacked by one of the giant sea creatures Percy had rehomed there over the years. Leading the attack was a certain grandson of Demeter.

Nathan Gardner hated fighting. He hated war and he hated battles and he didn't even like capture the flag. But this didn't mean that he wouldn't fight, or that he couldn't. When Octavian first began the attack, Nate was one of the first to know. One of the scouts, this one happened to be Katrina Grace, alerted him and the others that she saw Octavian heading up the hill with a small army in tow. This gave them time to ready the camp and send a message to the Jacksons and the Valdez's. Nate doubted Leo and Calypso were going to join the fight, but he felt they had a right to know what was happening. Nate recognized the sound of Percy's minivan pulling up and was nearly distracted long enough to get his head lopped off by Octavian, who was fighting Nate one on one.

"Hear that! The Jacksons are here, and they won't let you get any further than this," Nate spoke pridefully.

Octavian laughed a laugh deep in the back of his throat, the kind of laugh that sent shivers down the spine of people around him. "The Jacksons are broken, child. Everybody knows that," he said.

"That doesn't mean they can't still fight!"

"Not unless you know what to say," Octavian hissed. Nathan didn't know what Octavian meant by this but he figured he didn't want to find out. "This was too easy!" Octavian bragged. He danced around as if Nate was nothing but a flea buzzing annoyingly around him. "For the first time, a Jackson actually helped me secure my victory. Oh won't she be mad when she finds out, but I don't think she'll be able to stop me, do you?" he taunted.

"She didn't help you!" Nathan argued. Before Octavian could retaliate, Nate dropped his sword and geared up, then kicked Octavian _hard_ between the legs. Just in time for Casey to run up the hill and join him.

"Nice," she said, trying to hide her surprise. Nate smiled cheekily and shrugged. He wondered if this would get him another kiss on the cheek. Once Octavian fell, most of his army ran off. The stragglers were captured by Percy's giant wave and dunked into the lake so they could be secured.

"You did good," Casey said to Nate as they walked across the destroyed strawberry fields towards the big house. Plants sprouted up in Nate's wake, their strawberry buds matching the tinge to his cheeks.

"Thanks. I don't really know what I was doing. The only time I actually did any damage was when I dropped my sword and just kicked him."

"You don't need to be good with a sword to be good in a fight. The best battles are won by brains, not bronze. Besides, I think Octavian is still in the infirmary. Nice kick." She cocked her head and pecked him quickly on the cheek. Then, per usual, she folded her hands together and walked a few feet ahead. Nate slid his fingers over his cheek in wonder. Maybe she really did like him. He was too deep in thought to realize when the pair had arrived at the big house, when Octavian was on the floor still clutching his manhood. He glared at Nate as he walked in.

"We can't exactly send him back to the jail, we have to completely screen everybody working there and that's going to take days," Frank said.

"Why don't we just lock him in the basement?" his wife suggested.

"Why don't we shove him down the throat of kronos," Percy added. Annabeth rolled her eyes and shoved his arm.

"You let me go, and I'll tell you everything you want to know," Octavian bargained.

"There's nothing we want to know from you," Annabeth spat. "Dissecting teddy bears isn't exactly an art."

Octavian glared, then slowly pushed himself into a hunched over sitting position. He really was quite skinny; his sunken in eyes glared ahead at Annabeth, his jaw was locked and you could almost see the hatred luming off of him.

"I know how Jason Jackson died."


	78. Welcome-out-of Hell (Labyrinth)

I had calmed down after a while, but I still didn't speak to Daedalus. Charlie made awkward small talk before giving up and going silent. The only time he spoke was when to tell me he was getting tired. He didn't tell me, but I knew he wasn't feeling well. Damasen had taught me a lot about curing poisons, but I didn't have any supplies. We were out of herbs, there was no water, and I didn't even know how to make a cure if I had the supplies.

"We are getting close," Daedalus insisted. I almost wanted to stop and get some rest, just to spite him. But I couldn't risk him being right. I didn't know when another opportunity would come along. I would have had Charlie get on my back, but now I had three large slash marks from the Aeternae that hadn't had time to heal that prevented me from doing so.

I noticed Charlie's eyes drooping and made conversation, forcing him to stay awake. He needed a break. Will would have known what to do. I had never missed Will and Damasen so much. I was staring ahead at the monsters, watching them fight and argue. It wasn't very entertaining.

"Hey! It's the lava lake!" Charlie grabbed my arm and pointed towards the river. I smiled and made a stop at its banks.

'It's the _River Phaethon_ ," I corrected. I never thought I'd be happy to see that damned river. Charlie and I hadn't had a sip of its fiery waves in I didn't even know how long. We both scooped the burning river into our mouths, gagging as we did.

"Charlie, unwrap your shoulder," I insisted. He groaned, knowing what I had in mind. I dipped my fingers into the fire and brought my hand up, rubbing the river gently over his wound. Charlie bit his lip to keep from crying out. I finished quickly, then helped him wrap it back up.

"You're up," I said dryly, moving back to make room for Daedalus. He shook his head, insisting that he'd had roasted empousa earlier. I cringed at the thought. Empousa were too human. I wouldn't be able to eat anything that resembled a person so closely. According to the look on Charlie's face, he agreed.

 _It's either eat or die down here._

We continued on our way, not feeling the least bit better after stopping at the river. Like usual, I felt worse. We weren't walking for long when Daedalus stopped us. Ahead, a group of monsters was clustered around a wall. Suddenly they all stepped forward and disappeared into a hidden entrance in the rock.

"What the Harry Potter shit is going on here?" Charlie muttered. I raised an eyebrow at him, to which he responded, "Platform 9 ¾. Duh."

"The Labyrinth," Daedalus whispered. Charlie made a strange squeaking sound that I couldn't help but find at least a bit cute.

"We're here." The sheer depression in Daedalus's voice almost made me regret yelling at him earlier.

Once the group of monsters we'd been following disappeared into the rock, we approached. Charlie took out his sword and kept watch while I watched Daedalus open the labyrinth. He pressed his hand to the wall and a light blue triangle appeared. The light was bright enough to make me look away.

 _You haven't seen the sun in over six months._

"Incoming!" Charlie warned. Approaching quickly was a group of Hellhounds. The hounds made me homesick and miss our own friendly hound, Mrs. O 'Leary. I wonder if Daedalus felt the same way.

"Hurry!" Charlie chided. Daedalus muttered angrily and kept working. I didn't see why it was taking so long. I raised my sword but before I could swing, somebody grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me away.

It wasn't a long fall, but the landing is what concerned me. As soon as I hit the ground my head smashed into what felt like a concrete floor. I heard something snap and Charlie yell out in pain, then I blacked out.

 _I was in Tartarus again. I skipped across the familiar landscape, my body floating as if without gravity. Up ahead I saw a small figure, whirling a blade much too big for her._

" _Adora!" This was not a place she belonged. Adora was the opposite of Tartarus, she belonged here less than anybody else. I tried to reach her, screaming when I saw what she was fighting. The arai fought back, lashing at her with their long sharp claws. My baby sister screamed in pain, but she kept fighting. With each swing of the sword in her hands, the sword I now recognized as my own, she took on another curse. They were my curses, not hers. I tried to fight back, to shield her, anything. By nothing happened. It was as if I were a projection._

 _Then, as Adora lay dead in a pool of her own blood, her mouth opened and she spoke, her dead eyes staring right past me. "You should have saved me, Jason. You let me die, how could you? How could you leave me?" Her voice was eerily monotone. "Why did you lie to me, Jason? Why did you lie?"_

 _She never called me Jason, not even when she was mad. "Adora, I'm sorry! I'm coming home, I swear! I'll never let this happen!" I pleaded with her, begging her not to die._

" _It's too late Jason," she said chillingly. "I'm already dead."_

My head was throbbing when I woke. I heard steady groaning from behind me and whipped around when I heard Charlie yelp in pain.

"What happened?" I asked, ignoring the tears leaving muddy tracks on my cheeks. Charlie sat up against a wall while Daedalus inspected his leg.

"You're awake," Charlie said in relief. I crawled towards him, wincing. He took my head in his hands and turned it so he could see the bump from where I had hit the ground. The light was dim, but it was better than before. Charlie's skin was ashy and his eyes were hollow. He looked almost like a corpse.

"You're head doesn't look so good." He didn't mention my misty eyes, but Daedalus looked at me strangely.

"Back 'atcha. What happened?" I repeated.

"Daedalus opened the Labyrinth, which turns out was a big unexpected drop. I broke something-"

"Your ankle," Daedalus interrupted.

"Yes, my ankle. I broke my ankle when we fell and you hit your head and passed out. Daedalus just set my leg, he says the break isn't too bad but I really shouldn't walk on it." He seemed strangely cheerful. As I stared questioningly at him, a smile grew on his face. It was contagious. I didn't even know why I was smiling.

"We're out," he said. "We escaped Tartarus." His smiled broke into a grin. Realization struck me and I looked around in wonder. We were in a cold cobblestone hallway, which looked welcoming compared to where we had spent the past six of seven months. I kissed him on the temple, then on the lips. We'd really done it.

 _Or so you think._


	79. The true story (Outside POV)

"You can't know that," Piper stuttered, unsure of herself.

Octavian smiled at the stutter in her voice. "I've been working with the god who's been plotting for the past many months to finally get rid of him. He's hard to kill, I'll give you that."

Annabeth's hands clenched at her sides. Octavian had never seen Annabeth act like this; he loved it. The rush of power that came from her grief. But that didn't mean she wasn't still dangerous. She took her dagger out from her waistband and pressed it to Octavian's neck, enough pressure on the blade to draw blood. "You tell me everything you know about my son or I will kill you where you stand," she stuttered with the anger of a mother's love and a mother's loss.

"If you kill me, then you'll never know," Octavian managed to squeak. He knew Annabeth's curiosity would keep him alive. He knew the Greeks rarely resorted to death, so he also had that. He could tell them, it would be the final straw to break them. He could control their emotions. He could make _Percy Jackson_ cry. The thought excited him.

"But since I'm so generous, I'll tell you anyway. A sign of good faith," he offered. He paused for dramatic effect.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Percy said, his voice deadpan and low.

Octavian shrugged. "You don't."

Percy gritted his teeth. He hated everything about what was happening. "Did you have anything to do with it?"

"With what?" Octavian asked innocently.

"With my son's death?"

Octavian shrugged his head in regret. "Unfortunately, no. That honor went to our dear old friend, the goddess of misery." Octavian watched in delight as Annabeth's hand went to her husband's wrist. He watched the color drain from their faces. How could he make this as painful as possible? He may be captured, but that didn't mean he was done making Percy Jackson suffer for all he'd ever done to him.

"How do you know this?"

Octavian, again, shrugged. "I have a cyclops friend. Nyx is in charge of them, but that doesn't mean I don't get notified when our biggest problem is finally taken are of."

Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn't stop thinking about Luke. The pain she felt now only rivaled to when Luke had betrayed her. But still, she had to know. She was a daughter of Athena after all. "Tell me everything," she finally said. Nobody protested.

Octavian sat all the way up, and nobody stopped him. Nate tried to tug Casey from the door but quickly resisted. He wanted to know too. Octavian cleared his throat and spoke, "The monsters under our command quickly learned that surprise was the only way to injure the boys. They always seemed to come up with another stupid way out of everything, and it was driving me insane. So I had them tailed. I know their entire journey once they were on their own, all the way to their deaths. Well, almost. I don't know how the second one died, but I'm sure he didn't last long on his own."

"Wait," Leo interrupted. "Are you saying that you knew? The entire time our boys were down there, you knew exactly what was happening?"

Octavian's eyes glinted. He always hated Leo Valdez. "Every monster knows. Your son may have lived the longest, but he suffered the most that day."

Calypso had to hold Leo back. He was stuttering with anger and tears but finally relented in his wife's arms. "You'd better start talking, I want to know everything," he croaked.

Octavian rolled his eyes. "I was trying to! You parents, always so emotional. Makes me glad I never had kids. Anyway, as I was saying. The boys were already in bad shape, they couldn't put up much of a fight. It's your fault, Perseus, what happened. When Achlys learned of his name, she attacked. She held Jason around the throat, her claws digging into the skin on his neck. He didn't die immediately. Charlie jumped in. After Jason was thrown to the ground, the kid flipped out. The cyclops who witnessed this was fire resistant, yet even he had to step away from the heat. The fire was so hot, it was white the whole way through. Achlys didn't last long in a flame of vengeance like that. But it was too late for Jason. He was already dead. Charlie did try to resuscitate him. The cyclops watched for as he tried endlessly for twenty minutes straight. He was still going when the cyclops left, probably got himself killed by refusing to move on. Jason's ribs were broken, his neck was broken. Ironically enough, he may have drowned in his own blood," Octavian spoke slowly as if telling a horror story.

Percy stomped forward and raised riptide, but Octavian raised a finger and continued. "We would have taken the body, but then Charlie Valdez may have had a chance to move on. You should have heard his cries, Leo. The cyclops listened to them, was able to recite them to me as cyclops do. He was so scared, so alone. There had only been one person there for him all those months. Jason Jackson jumped into Tartarus to save your boy, and now he's dead because of it. Your child died alone, scared, with no hope. Maybe if you'd done something diff-"

"Enough!" Calypso boomed. "You do not talk of my family like that. These people may have held back to kill you but I will do no such thing. You say one more word about how he suffered and I will kill you myself," she warned.

Octavian raised an eyebrow. He didn't admit that Calypso actually scared him. How had Leo married a goddess? Let alone one this terrifying. "Don't you want to know that you had a chance to hear from him? This time, it wasn't even your fault."

"No, I don't want to know. I don't want you to say another word!" Calypso shouted. Annabeth set a hand over hers. Her eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks red.

"Let him speak," she said softly.

"But Annabeth-"

"No. I want to know everything our sons went through. I want to know every step they took, every thought that went through their heads. It's all we have left of them," Annabeth admitted. Calypso nodded, for Annabeth's sake.

Octavian rolled his eyes. "Reported by an empousa in the first month or so, Jason and Charlie made it to a shrine that's connected to your camp. They learned quickly what it was, and after they ate they wrote a note. We don't know what it said, maybe a proclamation of love, maybe an apology. But they didn't burn it. What was their reason? Ah yes. Hope. _What if they shouldn't have hope? What if we don't get out? What if we get their hopes up for nothing?_ Jason had said. Charlie had agreed, _It's better they don't have hope of us coming home if we don't end up getting out of here._ No matter how you let them down, at least they did care for you."

This didn't make anybody feel any better. The only person not in tears was Casey. "That means the warning was real," she said quietly. All heads turned to her.


	80. Another fall (Labyrinth)

Daedalus watched us with an expression I couldn't decipher. "We should get going," he said, walking down the hall. "We still have to survive the Labyrinth."

Charlie's smile faded a bit.

"Hey, at least we don't have to drink the _lava_ anymore," I offered in attempt to cheer him up.

Just when he was begin it to get excited, Daedalus countered with, "But now you have no food or anything to keep you alive."

"Would you quit it!" I snapped. He shrugged and stepped confidentially down the hall. I ran my hand along the stone as we walked. For some reason, I had the sudden urge to cry. The cobblestone felt so unfamiliar and strange. It shouldn't. It was just rock. It was cool to the touch, nothing like in Tartarus. I smiled at the thought, confident that I would never step foot in that place again.

 _Confidence is key to a good illusion._

"I can't believe we're not there anymore," I wondered aloud. Charlie nodded in agreement. My hand was holding him at the waist and he had an arm around my shoulder to keep the pressure off his broken ankle.

"Eight months is a long time," Daedalus agreed. I nodded, yawning. It felt like so much longer than just eight months. How long ago had Charlie been poisoned? Time was so different here, it was hard to tell what had happened when.

Charlie was frowning, his gaze fixed on our guide. "Eight months? How'd you know that?" he asked.

The old man's shoulders went stiff and he missed a step. "I don't know, you must have mentioned it." He wasn't a terrible liar, but his surprise gave it away. I stopped walking and pulled out my sword. Hey, I was still angry at the guy. You can't blame me for being wary. I hit his sword out of his hands before he had even turned around. It clattered forward, and I pulled it towards me with my foot. Daedalus raised his hands in terms of innocence and surrender.

"I do not know-,"

 _He knew._

"Cut the crap. I don't need to be an Athena kid to know you're lying. Jase is still mad at you, and if you don't start talking I'll let him loose," Charlie threatened. I bared my teeth to prove his point. Daedalus stared at me warily, debating his options. He was unarmed, and he was no longer a young (auto)man. He knew he wouldn't be able to take me in a fight. And despite his sick condition, Charlie was still a major threat.

"I am deeply sorry," he began. "But it is hard to explain-,"

"Take your time," I hissed.

He nodded. "Right. Well, when I opened the Labyrinth, I did not know of its location. I had no way of tracking it, and Tartarus is a very large place to look. Even if you have thirty-five years to do so. The monsters did not find it for about twenty years, so I could not follow them as you did." He stopped talking and frowned, almost as if he actually hadn't thought of the idea. For a child of Athena, he was getting pretty dumb. He'd been alive (technically alive) for over two thousand years; I guess his mind was just fading with age.

"And?" Charlie managed to look threatening, which must have been hard in his situation. He was still hanging off of me in support and was in obvious pain but the hardened expression on his face told Daedalus he'd still be willing to fight him. With his sunken in eyes and pale composition, he kind of reminded me of Nico.

 _He'll die if he fights again._

"A few years after I was stuck here, a man arrived. He looked human, he seemed human. At first, he seemed to accept his fate. Then he found out who I was and what I had done. He told me that in order to find the Labyrinth and survive, I must find two demigods, and follow them there. He said you would lead me to safety."

"Wait," I interrupted. "So you've been waiting for us for nearly forty years?"

He nodded. "Yes, he told me to follow the two demigods that would fall. After getting to the Labyrinth, I had to bring them to my workshop, alive. He was very specific about that part."

"Who's he? And how did he know this would happen" I asked, only growing more and more confused the more he spoke.

"I cannot say his name! I promised on the Styx I would not. And he said no harm would come to you, he swore it on the Styx!" Daedalus promised. Charlie, obviously, did not know what this meant. I did.

I lifted my sword until it was just under his chin. "Do you?" I asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you promise on the Styx that what you say is true?"

He swooped nervously and nodded. "Yes, I swear on the River Styx that what I told you is true."

I lowered my sword. "You never changed," I spat. The old man didn't disagree. He lifted his hand and pressed it against the wall, identifying another light blue triangle. Before I could protest, the floor gave out from under us, turning into a steep ramp. I lost my footing, and my grip on Charlie, and began to slide into the darkness.

 _You'll lose him again._


	81. A Long Lost Hero (Jase and Charlie)

It was like a terrifying water slide. Without the water. That's why it was terrifying. I could vaguely see Charlie underneath me, screeching like a frightened child on a roller coaster. At the end of the slide was a warm light, candlelight. It grew bigger the further we went, and I soon recognized it as an opening into a room. We approached all too quickly.

Soon enough, we emerged into the room and landed in a heap on a thick carpet. A nice change, really. As soon as we landed, Charlie broke into a coughing fit. I looked up and the first thing I noticed was a man, maybe a bit older than my dad. He looked somewhat like my Uncle Jason, but his blonde hair was long and covered most of his face. He had a beard that looked to be messily shaved.

"Daedalus," he cursed. The he noticed me and Charlie. "Who are these people, what have you done to them?" He bent down next to Charlie, who stopped coughing as he yipped in surprise and backed into me. I took him by the shoulders and pulled him into my side, staring defensively at the man. He pulled back apologetically.

You can't trust him.

"You told me to follow the two demigods that would fall into Tartarus and bring them here," Daedalus explained.

The blonde man's eyebrows creased in concern. "They were the demigods you found?" He began muttering to himself. The only words I caught were, "Percy and Annabeth." I perked up and their names but wasn't given a chance to speak.

"And I told you to keep them safe? They don't look safe!" He motioned towards us. He stepped towards me and reached for my arm but I recoiled.

This is the opposite of safe.

Daedalus shrugged. "Well, they're alive," he excused.

No help to you

"Did you say Percy and Annabeth?" I blurted. They both went silent and looked at me as if to, say how do you know those names?

"Yes, I did," the blonde man said softly. "Why, do you know them? Are they ok?" His eyes pooled with emotion. Even Daedalus seemed to grow a kinder expression.

"Yeah, I do know them. And they were ok last I saw them, which was about eight months ago, or however long we've been in here."

The man smiled in pride and relief. "Thank the gods they're ok! When I died, the fates told me they were doomed to fall into Tartarus. I sent Daedalus to keep them safe, but I guess they weren't the ones to fall. At least Daedalus was there to bring you here. You may not be who I thought you were, but that's ok. I think I've found a way out of here," he said.

"Percy and Annabeth did fall, like twenty-six years ago," I said plainly. The man seemed to melt. His eyes became misty as if he were trying to hide his own grief.

"Twenty-six years ago?" He turned to glare at Daedalus and his face went red and he struggled to keep himself contained. He reminded me a lot of Casey. Except he was better at controlling his anger.

You'll never see her again.

"I did not know! I did not know!" Daedalus insisted, growing pale.

"It's ok," I said. "They escaped through the doors of death. Then they defeated Gaia and saved, so I'd say it turned out alright."

The man just looked sad now. He turned away from the son of Athena. "I knew they would fall. Maybe it was part of my punishment, but the fates told me. When I was sent to Tartarus, I felt helpless. But then I met Daedalus, and I thought there would be a way to save them. I had him stay behind to watch for them so he could keep them safe, then I came here and spent years finding this workshop. I've been mastering the Labyrinth so I could help them escape when Daedalus brought them here. But like usual, I guess they didn't need anybody but each other to survive." He smiled softly. It was a sad smile, the type of smile you see as soldier recount their times at war and the friends they lost while there.

You now wear that smile. As does Charlie Valdez.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You mastered the Labyrinth for my parents? You could have escaped!" Who was this guy? A nagging suspicion began to grow in the back of my mind, but my dwindling logic pushed it aside.

"I could have, but I wouldn't. Not as long as I knew there was a chance I had to save Percy and Annabeth. And I haven't mastered it yet-," he froze mid-sentence as he realized the full extent of what I had said. "Parents?"

I nodded as if it were obvious, sending both the men into wide eyed stares. "I'm Jason Jackson. Percy and Annabeth are my parents."

The man looked like he was about to cry, yet he was somehow happy. His head dropped to his hands, revealing a strange scar on his face. I gasped and grabbed Charlie's arm. I couldn't find myself able to speak. I knew who this man was. I knew how he knew my parents, why he was so adamant to save them. And I knew why he wound up in Tartarus. Kronos was inside of him when he died, so it made sense he would end up in Tartarus.

Ah, Luke Castellan. The hero of both sides.


	82. Saved from Beyond (Outside)

"What warning?" Octavian snapped. "Who warned you?"

Casey didn't bother to explain. "When did it happen?" she asked. "When did he die?" Hope was evident in her voice, despite the lack of it from her parents. Even Nate doubted there was a chance Jase was alive. But if Casey was willing to believe it, then so was he.

At the sound a horn outside, Octavian smiled. Casey cursed loudly. She should have known. This whole thing, the promise of truth from Octavian, it had all been a lure to keep them inside. Octavian's fighters hadn't run off; they'd waited.

"You tricked me, again," she snarled.

"It wasn't quite a trick," Octavian admitted. "Every word I said was the truth."

Nate pulled her out the door before she could smite him. "He's probably lying, Casey; it's what he does," he said. Casey huffed in disagreement as they ran to the top of Half-Blood Hill. Nico and Will were already there fighting. Nico has an angry expression seemingly tattooed onto his face but managed a warm smile as Casey approached. His stygian iron sword swung mercilessly through any monster that threatened him or his husband.

"It was a setup!" Will insisted.

"No shit!" Casey returned. She got out her weapon and began to hack away. Nate stayed in the background and raised his arms. Vines grew from the ground and wrapped around the monster's feet, making them easy to be killed. Nate had done enough hand to hand combat fo the day. Casey on the others hand couldn't wait to get started. More and more monsters appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Casey didn't know why, but she happened to glance up just in time to see a monster appear behind Will with its claws raised. She faintly saw a blue triangle on the rock wall behind him but didn't think much of it.

"Look out!" she yelled. Will stopped to look at her. He didn't even see it coming. "Will!" she screamed his name as if that would make him understand what was about to happen. She was running towards Will so quickly that she barely noticed when two arms stuck out of the rock wall, which she now recognized as a doorway. One hand grabbed the Empousa and yanked it through the doorway, and the other hand pushed Will to safety.

Will landed on the ground a few feet away, miffed but unhurt. He jumped up to see what had pushed him but only saw what he thought was a janitorial uniform before the rock wall slammed shut. Casey arrived just in time for a blood-curdling scream to erupt from behind the wall as it shut. One of Will's savior's arms was still outside the doorway when it had shut. The scream was suddenly cut off completely as the doorway disappeared completely and the arm, now completely detached, dropped to the ground in front of the rock.

"What the fu-"

"What happened?" Will cut off his husband and stood up. The phenomenon was so strange that they may not have believed it had happened if it weren't for the still-warm arm in front of them and blood seeping from the rock wall. The blue triangle faded to nothing a moment later.

Nico ran to Will and eagerly checked him for injuries. "Did you hear that?" Will said, in a daze.

"The scream? Yeah, we all heard that," Nate said.

Will bent and picked up the arm. Nico and the others cringed away from the flesh as it made a strange squishing sound. "Whose arm is that?"

Will shrugged. "I don't know, there's no roman tattoo and too many scars to find any identifying marks. More importantly-'

"What's more important than the arm that just fell out of a freaking rock?" Casey asked.

"The fact that it came out of the rock," Will responded. "That triangle, I've seen it before. Somehow, the Labyrinth has been opened. And I saw somebody inside of it."


	83. First Night Out (Charlie and Jase)

PREVIOUSLY:

I nodded as if it were obvious, sending both the men into wide eyed stares. "I'm Jason Jackson. Percy and Annabeth are my parents."

The man looked like he was about to cry, yet he was somehow happy. His head dropped to his hands, revealing a strange scar on his face. I gasped and grabbed Charlie's arm. I couldn't find myself able to speak. I knew who this man was. I knew how he knew my parents, why he was so adamant to save them. And I knew why he wound up in Tartarus. Kronos was inside of him when he died, so it made sense he would end up in Tartarus.

 _Ah, Luke Castellan. The hero of both sides._

 **Now:**

"You're Luke?" I asked unbelievingly. "Luke Castellan!"

He hung his head shamefully. I couldn't believe it. I had seen a lot of strange things these past months, but this took the cake. I met Daedalus himself, I found Bob and Damasen, got my mother's dagger, fought monsters I didn't even know exist, but this was just too much to believe.

 _Then don't believe it._

"When I died, Kronos died with me. He went to Hades knows where, and I was stuck in Tartarus. The fates told me that Percy and Annabeth would fall into Tartarus, and I'm not sure if it was part of my punishment or them setting it up to find you, but they did. Then I made the deal with Daedalus, which I guess it's a good thing he didn't find them or else you wouldn't be here and whatever they did with the doors of death wouldn't have happened. I may not have saved them, but I can save you." He offered me a hand. "Maybe I can do one thing right."

I knew what had happened when my parents had trusted Luke in the past. But when it came down to it, he killed himself to end Kronos. He saved them. And the look in his eyes was the same one I saw in my dad's, and my mom's, and every other demigod that had seen too much and been through two too many wars. He was just Luke now. He was the man my mom trusted with her life, the man that welcomed my dad into camp when nobody else would. He was the man who had just saved me, who had just saved Charlie.

I shook his hand. "You're remembered as a hero," I told him. "You had a shroud burned after the war and were celebrated with honors. When my dad was brought onto Olympus after the war, he was offered immortality. He turned it down. A lot of the reason was my mom, but a lot of it was you too. Instead, he made the gods swear to claim their children by at least the age of twelve, and he broke the ban that kept the gods from seeing their children. My parents made sure you will always be remembered, as a hero. You killed Kronos, you ended the war."

"I started the war," he protested.

"But how you finished it is what counts," I said. Luke lifted his head and smiled.

"Your dad was offered immortality?" Charlie whispered hoarsely to me. I nodded and smirked at the look on his face. Luke was still smiling when I turned back to him.

"You can sleep here for the night. I'll take a look at your friend's leg and when you're fully rested, we will navigate our way out and get you two home," he suggested.

Home. The idea of home was like imagining how it would feel to touch the grass when you live in the South Pole.

 _You'll never be home._

Charlie hummed at the idea and I helped him get onto one of the three cots in the room. I assumed one of them was meant for me, but I sat down with Charlie instead.

"Get some rest, Chuck. I'll keep watch." I said gently. Charlie was too tired to argue. He laid his head on my lap and somewhat curled himself around me. He was more sick than he'd admit, and the River Phaethon didn't seem to have done anything.

Luke wasn't angry that I didn't trust him quite enough to go to sleep without Charlie keeping watch. He only nodded in understanding. Trust wasn't the only reason I was staying awake though. This had become kind of a routine that I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to break. It had been a long time since I'd slept without Charlie keeping watch.

Luke stared at me like he had a million questions to ask. He said nothing so I decided to go ahead and answer as many as I could. I started with, "My parents got together after the first war." Luke perked up at this so I continued, "They were happy for seven months, but that's when Hera got involved…" I explained everything that happened to my parents after the war, giving him a brief history of the Seven and the others that aided in the war against Gaia. He hung onto every word, much like Damasen but with a lot more emotion. I finished off my story when my parents finally got a house and started a family.

"So, is it just you?" he asked.

I smiled and shook my head as I thought of my siblings. "No, there's four of us. I'm the oldest. Next is Casey, she's thirteen. Or well, fourteen now." Guilt slammed into chest when I realized it. I had missed Casey's birthday. I had missed my _own_ birthday, and Dad's, and Mom's. I'd missed Oscar's first birthday. I swallowed the thought, along with my tears, and continued.

 _He doesn't remember you anymore_

"She's a lot like you actually. She's strong, quick-witted. She's always got my back in a fight, and she always speaks before she thinks, which has gotten her in some tough spots before. She's almost as smart as mom, but she acts like dad. Of course, mom's pride keeps her anger in check most of the time. My other sister, Adora, is five years old. I think. Depending on how long I've been gone, she might be six." I was ignoring my tears at this point. "She's a beautiful little ray of sunshine. She looks exactly like mom, but she isn't a lot like her. Books are annoying and math is stupider than putting coffins in the Hades cabin, according to her. She's happy about everything and always manages to keep a positive attitude. My youngest sibling is Oscar, he's over year old by now." I couldn't talk any longer without crying, so I stopped. Charlie wasn't awake, but his hand found mine anyway.

Luke could tell I was getting upset and changed the subject. "They sound amazing. So, who's this?" He asked, motioning towards the boy in my lap.

 _Nobody will remember his name._

I smiled. "Remember the story about Leo Valdez? He found his way back to Ogygia and saved Calypso. They settled down and had Charlie. This is Charlie, in case you haven't guessed." Charlie grunted in his sleep as if he knew I was talking about him.

Luke asked about my mom a lot. She'd changed a lot since he'd died, and it seemed like he was trying to get to know her again through me. Not that I was complaining, but the more I talked about her, the more I missed her.

Eventually, my eyes began to droop. I was going to let Charlie sleep, but he woke up anyway. His eyes were a bit brighter now, but I could tell the poison was still affecting him pretty badly.

"We're not in Tartarus," was the first thing he said. I smiled and bent down to kiss him a good morning.

"We're not," I confirmed.

Luke watched us with a mixture of surprise and amusement. It's not like we were hiding our affection, it was obvious there was something going on between us but I blushed anyway. It was going to take me a long time to adjust to having other people around.

"Jase, go to sleep. Now that I can see you in normal light I can see the bags under your eyes prove you're more tired than you say you are," Charlie chided. I rolled my eyes at his mother-hen attitude but didn't object.

 _You're weak_

There was an actual pillow here, not a bloody crumbled flannel. I laid down behind Charlie and he sat up on the cot to talk to Luke. Maybe it was just because we weren't in Tartarus anymore, but I fell asleep quickly.


	84. The arm (outside)

Hours later, after the Camp had been thrown into chaos surrounded rumors of the Labyrinth, Will had finished his DNA test and finger tip swabs.

"Are you crazy? We both know that's not possible!" Annabeth boomed, raising her voice for the first time in months. Annabeth rarely yelled at Will, who now stood in front of her, pale-faced and nearly shivering.

"Annabeth, I'm sorry but I know what I'm talking about and I know what I saw!" Will argued, motioning towards the arm laying on the slab next to them. His voice was low, quiet. Half the camp was holed into the infirmary once they heard that Will had identified the arm.

"No, Will you don't understand! It can't be!" Annabeth's voice cracked at the last word.

"It's Jase's arm, Annabeth, and he was alive when he lost it, today."

Annabeth shook her head and reached for Will. He held her tightly as Percy came running into the room. He glanced to the arm on the metal platter, then to Annabeth crying in Will's arms. He put it together rather quickly.

"You don't understand," Annabeth sobbed. "If that was Jase, then that means that I gave up on him! I gave up on my little boy when he was still alive! I could have been looking, fighting for him to come home, but I was moving on! And you're telling me he wasn't dead. Will, I gave up," she was whispering by the time she finished speaking. Grover grabbed Percy's arm, pulling him to reality.

"I need to speak to Thalia," Percy spoke promptly. Without even stopping to speak to his wife, he ran from the room to the forest where the hunters were practicing. Annabeth didn't call after him.

Casey was with Thalia, who was teaching her to shoot her bow. "Hey dad, I think I'm getting better than you!" she called as Percy approached.

"I think you were born better than him," Thalia snorted.

"Thalia I need the hunters to do something. When are you leaving?" Percy asked sternly.

"Uh, this afternoon? Early morning? I don't know, why?"

"The arm, it's Jase's."

"What?" Casey dropped the bow. "That means I was right! He's alive!" Her face lit up.

"Or he was when he pushed Will away from those monsters. But with blood loss he must have encountered could have been enough…"

"He's alive," Casey snapped. "Does this mean he's out of Tartarus? And if that really was the Labyrinth, how did Jase get there? Does this mean he can get out? What about Daedalus?"

Percy looked at Casey with a mournful look. "I don't know the answer to any of those questions. Thalia, I need your hunters to track down a monster that's been in the Labyrinth, find out if they've seen my son."

Thalia nodded, slinging her bow and whistling to the other hunters. "What will you be doing?" she asked Percy.

He sighed regretfully. "Right now, I need to help Annabeth. But I don't know what else we can do. If he's really in the Labyrinth, then he could be anywhere in the world. And the kids still have school-"

"What?" Casey interrupted. "You're saying that Jase is still alive and we can go save him, but we have to go to _school_? We have to find Jase!"

"No, Casey, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying there's not really anything we can do. We have to stay here. If he gets out, this will be the first place he goes. We need to monitor communications in case he tries to call or Iris Message. We'll reach out to the Romans, and the Norse will have their valkyrie keep an eye out for him."

"We can open the Labyrinth here! Then we can go in and search for him-"

"No." Percy's face darkened. "The Labyrinth is endless, there's no way we'd ever find him. Besides, it's too dangerous. I will not lose another child."

Casey's eyes widened almost to a pout. "But if it's so dangerous, then why are you letting Jase go through it alone?"

Percy was silent. The comment struck him through the heart. If he were younger, back when he didn't have kids and still thought that everything would always turn out ok, like the last time he'd traveled through the Labyrinth, he would have jumped right in just to explore. But now, he knew the consequences. Death was just around the corner in this life, and if he died now, he's leave his kids fatherless. He's leave Annabeth without her husband, her best friend. Was he willing to risk the life of one child to save another?

"No, Casey. We can't risk it," he finally said. "I'm not letting Jase go alone, he has Charlie." His tone was hopeful, strangely optimistic.

"Charlie Valdez? The same Charlie that didn't know what a demigod was last time we saw him? Yeah, I'm sure he'll keep Jase safe."

Percy shrugged. "Demigods are fast learners. I've got to go find Annabeth. As for you, you're staying here. The hunters will track down any leads, but we-"

"Then I'll go with them!" Casey once again butted in.

Thalia's eyebrows shot into the air. Percy froze mid-step and turned back around. "Casey, are you saying-"

"I'll become a hunter. If that's what it takes. I need to find my brother, and if you aren't going to help me I'll find another way. Like you said, the Labyrinth is dangerous. We need to get him out."

"Are you sure about this?" Thalia asked, whispering to Casey. Casey noticed she was clutching her sword pendant tightly.

Casey nodded sharply. "Yes, let's do it. Make me a hunter."


	85. A confession (Charlie and Jase)

"What?" Both him and Luke spoke. I looked down to avoid both stares.

"Nyx didn't throw me in. You had fallen and it was too late to catch you, so I went after you."

Charlie didn't speak. I couldn't tell if he was mad, and I didn't want to look at him because I suspected he was. A drop of water landed on my back, tempting me to turn around. Charlie was crying. He saw me poking at him with wide scared eyes and shook his head. He pulled himself onto his knees in front of me and hugged me. His tears dampened my shoulder but I didn't mind. I hugged him back, worried it might be the last chance I got the opportunity to. He pulled away and I let my hands trail after him.

"You're an idiot," he said. But he was smiling.

"I know." I was tempted to say something cheesy, like _but I'm your idiot!_ But I figured now was not the time. He pushed himself forward with his good leg and landed on top of me. I fell backwards as he kissed me. He was still crying, making his lips taste salty.

"Thank you," he whispered as he pulled away. We probably would have sat there for hours, but Luke interrupted us and coughed awkwardly. He was holding two backpacks, one of which I recognized as the one Damasen made us. I blushed and got up, helping Charlie get our backpack on. I wrapped my arm (not the broken one) around his waist to help him walk and he slung his arm over my shoulders. I pulled my dagger from my belt loop and placed it in our bag. Luke's eyes lingered on the weapon but he didn't mention it. He'd given it to my mom, and she'd been heartbroken when she lost it. Now, somehow, it was mine. I didn't take the time to explain this to Luke.

Luke had set Charlie's ankle in a makeshift brace but it was still best if he not walk on it. I wished we had some ambrosia. I hated seeing the level of pain he was in. I was used to seeing him in pain by now, but that doesn't mean I liked it. Daedalus sat at his desk looking over old papers. He hadn't moved since we arrived. He hadn't even spoken, not that I was complaining.

 _He's planning something._

"Are we ready to go?" Charlie asked. Luke sighed and looked around the workshop. There weren't any windows anymore, contrary to when my parents were here. Luke had spent almost the past forty years here, mastering the labyrinth. I wondered if he was prepared to leave it behind.

"Yeah, we're ready," he said. "Let's go," he urged Daedalus, who grumbled in annoyance and stood, gathering a pile of papers into a satchel. Luke pressed his hand to the wall and a doorway appeared. Daedalus scrambled through first. Luke motioned us through next, and he was the last one out. The arch closed behind us.

The hallway was chilly. It was darker than the one we'd first landed in. I noticed spider webs in the corners and huddled a bit closer to Charlie. Despite everything I'd seen and everything I'd fought, I still hated spiders.

Luke took the lead. He didn't look like he had any idea where he was going, which lead me to have a few concerns about his plan.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Not sure. The more you think about it and the more you plan, the more the Labyrinth changes," he answered. Well, that's probably why my mother hated it so much. She always had a plan. Unfortunately, I was a lot like her.

We soon came to a dead end with two hallways leading out from either side. I wanted to go left, something in my gut told me to go left. Maybe it was the arai. Luke turned right. I gazed behind us towards the other tunnel but it looked exactly like the one we were in.

Ahead was a small wooden door, small enough that I would have to duck to get through. The door looked almost exactly like one from one of the cafes at Camp Jupiter. Luke opened the door, crashing my hopes of this actually leading to a nice comfortable cafe.

The room looked like a typical room. Hardwood floors were beneath us, looking newly waxed. The walls were grey and there was a popcorn ceiling. It was oddly familiar.

"This is my bedroom," I said. There was no furniture in it, which is why it took me so long to recognize. There were no photos on the wall, no crayon markings on the floor from my childhood attempts at architecture designs. I felt a lump in my throat. It shouldn't have taken me so long to recognize my own bedroom. The other thing that threw me off were the two red doors on the opposite side of the room.

"This is my bedroom," I repeated.

"The Labyrinth likes to play tricks, it plays with your mind. This isn't really your bedroom," Daedalus explained, a hint of pride in his voice.

"No, but I'd say it's pretty close," a new voice said.


	86. A decision (outside)

Word spread quickly that Artemis was about to sign Casey Jackson into the hunters of Artemis. Casey had retreated to the lake before the ceremony or whatever began. Thalia had told her to take some time to think it over.

Thalia was a smart woman. She was glad to accept any girl as a hunter, but it was different with Casey. She'd love to have Casey join the hunters, but she knew how distraught it would make Annabeth. So she made a plan to convince Casey not to join. This plan had one step: Tell Nathan Gardner.

"Nathan," Thalia called his attention. He glanced at her, but turned around when he saw who it was.

"What do you want?" Usually he'd be on his bets behavior towards her but he wasn't in the best of moods.

"You heard about Casey? She's talking about joining-"

"Yes, I heard. Why are you here? You got what you wanted."

"But Casey didn't."

Nate hesitated. He felt so torn; betrayed, almost. But what was he supposed to do? This was Casey's decision and he had to respect that. He cared about her so deeply, so much, that he _had_ to let her go. Maybe she'd find Jase. Maybe by the time Nathan died she'd still be fourteen.

"What do you mean? She wants her brother back, joining the hunters is the best way to do that."

"If you thinking joining the hunters will make her happy, then go say goodbye and run back to your cabin and cry. But if you don't think this is what she truly wants, then you should probably tell her before it's too late to turn back because once she joins, she can't very easily quit," Thalia suggested.

Nathan looked at her with a whole new understanding. "You don't want her to join, do you?"

Thalia took a deep breath and glanced around to make sure nobody was listening. "I have many sisters in the hunters. Many girls that have been beside me for years, that have given their lives to save mine. But before they were there, before I joined the hunters and when I still thought Apollo was hot, there was Annabeth. When I think of my sisters, Annabeth it the first name to appear. And if Casey joined us and gods-forbid something _happened_ to her...Annabeth was just a little kid when we first found her," she explained.

"We?"

Thalia's expression hardened. "You should go find Casey."

Nathan took the hint. He knew exactly where Casey would be. "Thank you," he called over his shoulder as he ran toward the beach.

He had slowed to a jog by the time his feet hit the sand. Casey was sitting with her toes in the waves, her back to him. She was too deep in thought to hear him coming. He sat down next to her.

"So, the hunters, huh?" he whispered hoarsely.

Her eyes widened and she went stiff, refusing to look at him. She swallowed and nodded awkwardly. Oops. She'd forgotten about Nathan. Nathan, who she'd kissed, Nathan who she'd told wasn't ready for a relationship. Nathan who now knew she said she was going to give up relationships all together. Oops.

"Uh," came her intelligent response. Casey was smart. She had the brain of Athena, but Athena's brain was missing something that Casey could have really used at that point... Athena was _not_ an emotional god. She didn't know how to talk to people very well in any form that didn't include a cited argumentative essay. Neither did Casey.

"Immortality seems cool," Nate said dryly.

"They're going after Jase," Casey tried to explain. "His arm was the one found on the hill-"

"I heard."

Casey still hadn't looked at him. She was staring straight ahead with eyes wide enough to resemble her grandmother's sacred animal. "Nate, I'm sorry."

"Save your apology, Casey. If this is what you want, then go for it. I told you before, as long as you're happy then I will be too. But if this isn't what you want, if this won't make you happy, then you're going to live a life on the run without your family. You're going to outlive your parents and your siblings. And if that's how you want to live, then go do it and do it amazingly," Nate said.

Casey sighed, finally averting her gaze to Nate's feet. "Nate,"

"You don't have to explain anything to me," Nathan said in nearly sharp tone. "I'll let you think. But Casey, you're parents can't lose another kid, and I can't lose you."

AU: I've been gone a really long time... but the story is finished, so I figured I'd give it to whoever is still reading!


End file.
